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MEMORIAL EDITION. 



THE 



Life and Work 



OF 



AMES A. GARFIELD, 

TWENTIETH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: 

EMBRACING 

AN ACCOUNT OF THE SCENES AND INCIDENTS OF HIS BOYHOOD; THE 
STRUGGLES OF HIS YOUTH; THE MIGHT OF HIS EARLY MAN- 
HOOD; HIS VALOR AS A SOLDIER; HIS CAREER 
AS A STATESMAN ; HIS ELECTION TO 
THE PRESIDENCY; 

AND 

THE TRAGIC STORY OF HIS DEATH. 



BY 

JOHN CLARK RIDPATH, LL.D., 

Author of a Popular History of the United States; A Grammar-School History of thb 
United States; An Inductive Grammar of the English Language, etc. 



Copiously Illustrated. 



JONES BROTHERS AND COMPANY: 

CINCINNATI, PHILADELPHIA, CHICAGO, KANSAS CITY. 

J. M. OLCOTT, INDIANAl'OLIS. J. C. CHILTON & CO., DETROIT. 
VV. H. McCLAIN, DES MOINES, IOWA. 

1881. 






COPYRIGHTED, 1881, BY J. T. JONES. 



Bequest 
Feb. 1926 



PREFACE. 



Dean Swift describes the tomb as a place where savage enmity can 
rend the heart no more. Here, in the ominous shadow of the cypress, 
the faults and foibles of life are forgotten, and the imagination builds a 
shining pathway to the stars. Ascending this Avith rapid flight, the 
great dead is transfigured as he rises; the clouds close around him, and, 
in the twinkling of an eye, he is set afar on the heights with Miltiades 
and Alexander. 

The tendency to the deification of men is strongest when a sudden 
eclipse falls athwart the disk of a great life at noontide. The pall of 
gloom sweeps swiftly across the landscape, and the beholder, feeling the 
chill of the darkness, mistakes it for the death of nature. So it was 
three hundred years ago when the silent Prince of Orange, the founder 
of Dutch independence, was smitten down in Delft. So it was when the 
peerless Lincoln fell. So it is when Garfield dies by the bullet of an 
assassin. 

No doubt this man is glorified by his shameful and causeless death. 
The contrast between his life and his death is indeed the very irony of 
fate. On the popular imagination he is borne away to Washington and 
Lincoln. He is canonized — the American people will have it so. 

In due season fei-vor will subside. The keen indignation and poig- 
nant sorrow of this great and sensitive citizenship will at length give 
place to other emotions. The murdered Garfield will then pass through 
an ordeal more trying than any of his life. He will be coolly measured 
and his stature ascertained by those inexorable laws which determine the 
rank and place of both living and dead. No doubt he will suffer loss; 
but there is of James A. Garfield a residuum of greatness — 

Which sliall tire 
Torture and Time, and breathe though he expire ; 

Something uneartlily wliich we deem not of, 
Like the remembered tone of a mute lyre, — 

And this residuum of greatness, whatever it shall be, will constitute the 
Garfield of the future — the Garfield of history. 

(iii) 



[y PREFACE. 

For the present there will be — there can but be— a blending of the 
real and the ideal. The glamour of the apotheosis will dazzle the vision 
of those who witnessed it. It is enough, therefore, that the narrative of 
to-day shall be such as befits the universal sentiment. The biographer 
of the future may weigh with more critical exactitude the weakness 
against the greatness, and poise in a more delicate balance the evil 
against the good. 

The following pages embody an effort to present, in fair proportion. 
The Life and Work of James A. Garfield. Such sources of in- 
formation as are at present accessible have been faithfully consulted ; and 
it is sincerely hoped that the outline here given of the personal and pub- 
lic career of the illustrious dead, will be found true to the life. As far 
as practical)ie in the following pages, the purposes and character of Presi- 
ident Garfield will be determined from his own words. His apothegms 
and sayings, not a few, and his public papers and speeches have alike 
contributed their wealth to the better parts of the volume. The story 
of the President's wounding and death has been gathered from the abun- 
dant sources — official and semi-official — of the journals and magazines of 
the day. It is hoped that the narrative, as a whole, will not be found 
deficient in interest, or unworthy of the subject. 

This preface would be incomplete if failure should be made to mention 
the invaluable and extensive service rendered the author in the preparation 
of the work, by Mr. Augustus L. Mason and Mr. Nathaniel P. 
CoNREY, to whose industry and discriminating taste much of whatever 
merit the book contains, must be accredited. And with this acknowledg- 
ment should be coupled a like recognition of the spirit of The Publishers, 
who, with their accustomed liberality, have spared no pains to illustrate 
the work in a manner befitting the subject. May all who read these 
pages find in them as full a measure of profit as the author has found of 
pleasure in their preparation. J. C. E,. 

Indiana Asbury University, 
November, 1881. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

BIRTH AND ANCESTRY. 



PAGES 



" Unto us a child is born."— A lowly home in the wilderness.— Law of 
heredity.— The New England stock.— The Garfields.— The Ballous.— 
Trend of the boy mind.— The father's death.— Story of the cause.— The 
widow's struggle. — Life in the Garfield cabin. — Earliest labor.— First 
lessons.— The Garfield family.— Boyhood traits.— The growing stalk. . 11-27 

CHAPTER II. 

THE STRUGGLE OF BOYHOOD. 

A "Western boy of twelve.— Workland and dreamland.— A carpenter in em- 
bryo.— Summer day and winter day.— The door of bookland opens. — 
What he saw.— A doubtful farmer.— Possibly something else.— A giant 
of sixteen. — The stage of brigandage.— Pirate or President ?— Meanwhile 
a woodchopper.— The sea-vision again. — The great deep takes the form 
of a canal.— Venus : otherwise, the Evening Star.— The glory of the 
tow-path. — Navigation and pugilism. — Diving for pearls. — Leaves the 
sea. — The goblin that shakes us all. — Politics, religion, and grammar. — 
Off to school. — A place called Chester. — Builds abarn. — And then teaches 
a school. — More school. — Joins church. — Credo. — Possible sweet- 
heart. — Learns elocution. — Hiram rises to view.— An academic course 
of study. — What about college ?— Bethany, maybe. — Decides against 
it. — Why. — Knocks at the door of Williams 28-58 

CHAPTER III. 

THE MORNING OF POWER. 

College life. — A Junior at Williams. — Favorite books.— College traditions. — 
A brain of many powers.—" Mountain Day." — Essays in literature. — 
The Williams Quarterly. — Poems: Memory, Autumn, Charge of the Tight 
Brigade. — A writing-master at intervals. — Free Kansas. — A metaphy- 
sician.— Steps out with honor. — Mark Hopkins. — Becomes a professor at 
Hiram. — And then a college president.— His methods and manners. — 
Success as an educator. — Lectures and preaches.— A union for life. — 
The chosen mate. — Incipient politics. — First nomination for office. — 



vi CONTENTS. 

FAG£S 

State senator from Portage and Summit.— Hints at leadership.— Eises 
in influence. — The approaching conflict. — Ohio maltes ready for battle. — 
Independence Day at Eavenna.— Sound of the tocsin. — Vanguard, to 
right and left the front unfold ! 59-87 

CHAPTEE IV. 

A SOLDIEK OF THE UNION. 

A West Point soldier. — George H. Thomas. — The Union volunteer.— Garfield 
appointed Lieutenant-Colonel. — And then Colonel. — The Forty -second 
Ohio. — Studies war. — Ordered to the front. — Kentucky, who shall have 
her? — Marshall says, /. — Garfield objects. — Don Carlos Buell. — Expedi- 
tion to Catlettsburg. — Pluck to the backbone, Sir. — Will attack Paint- 
ville. — A man called Jordan. — The region and the people. — Harry 
Brown, Esq. — Capture of Paintville. — Battle of Middle Creek. — A big 
victory on a small scale. — Address to the soldiers. — Big Sandy on the 
rampage. — Garfield takes a turn at the wheel. — Proclamation to the peo- 
ple of the Valley. — Concerning Pound Gap. — A proposed muster rudely 
broken up. — Exit Humphrey Marshall. — General Orders No. 40. — 
Comments on the campaign 88-114 

CHAPTEE V. 

HERO AND GENERAL. 

Brigadier-General Garfield. — Eeports to Buell. — A new field of activity. — 
At Pittsburg Landing. — Stands up for Africa. — Sits on court-martial.— 
Again the goblin shakes us. — But we report at Washington. — Tries Fitz- 
John Porter. — Assigned to Hunter's command. — Appointed chief of staff 
to Eosecrans. — The commanding general. — Duties of chief of staff. — 
Personal sketch of Garfield. — Eosecrans dislikes him. — And tlien likes 
him.— Sheridan's ten-pins.— Garfield issues cii'cular on prison pens. — 
Helps Vallandigham across the border. — Opposes negro insurrection. — 
Stands by Lincoln. — Organizes army police. ^Favors in advance. — 
The Tullahoma campaign. — Eosecrans's advance on Chattanooga. — The 
capture. — Position of Bragg. — The big game begun. — Situation and 
preliminaries. — The battle of Chickamauga. — Garfield's jjart. — Praise 
and promotion. — We are elected to Congress. — And accept 115-166 

CHAPTEE VL 

IN THE ASCENDANT. 

The constituency of Garfield. — The old Western Eeserve.— Joshua E. Gid- 
dings. — Character of Congress. — Garfield enters the Cave of the Winds. — 
On Military Committee. — Opposes the bounty system. — Favors the 
draft. — Advocates confiscation. — Demolishes A. Long, Esq. — The Wade- 
Davis Manifesto. — A strange renomination. — Advocates the Thirteenth 



CONTENTS. Vli 

PAGES 

Amendment. — Beards Stanton. — The assassination of Lincoln. — Scene 
in New York. — Speech on the Lincoln anniversary. — The temperance 
question. — Defends Milligan and Company. — Advocates a Bureau of 
Education. — Chairman of Committee on Military Affairs. — The visit 
to Europe. — Oration on Decoration Day \ . 167-210 

CHAPTER VII. 

LEADER AND STATESMAN. 

Opposes his constituents on the money question. — Garfield on the Ninth 
Census. — Speaks on Statistics. — Reports on Black Friday. — Speaks on 
Civil Service. — Defends the prerogatives of the House. — An authority on 
Revenue and Expenditure. — Speaks against the McGarraghan Claim. — 
Advocates an Educational Fund. — Opposes inflation of currency. — Dis- 
cusses the railway problem. — An oration on the Elements of Success. — 
Literary views and habits. — Oration on the Life and Character of 
Thomas. — Speech on the Future of the Republic 211-253 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE NOONTIDE. 

The era of slander. — The Credit Mobilief of America. — Reviewed and answered 
by Garfield. — The so-called Salary Grab. — Trouble in the Western Re- 
serve. — Garfield's defense and vindication. — The DeGollyer pavement 
matter. — Triumphant answer to charges. — Democratic ascendancy of 
1874. — The "Confederate Congress." — Garfield speaks on the Pension 
Bill. — Demolishes Lamar. — Speech on the acceptance of the Winthrop 
and Adams statues. — Opposes the Electoral Commission. — Favors Specie 
Payments. — ^Proposed for Speaker. — Opposes the Bland Silver Bill. — 
Speech on the .Judicial Appropriation Bill. — The payment of United 
States marshals. — Appropriation Bill again. — Elected to the Senate. . 254-307 

CHAPTER IX. 

GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 

Questions of American statesmanship. — Garfield tested. — Speeches on States 
Rights and National Sovereignty: No Nullification; Force Bill; 
Equipoise of Government; Fourteenth Amendment. — Speeches on Fi- 
nance AND Money: The Industrial Revolution; Gold and Silver; 
Currency ; Banks ; Paper Money ; Resumption Act. — Speeches on Rev- 
enue AND Expenditures: Free Trade and Tariff; Public Expendi- 
tures; War Expenses. — Speeches on Character and Tendency of 
American Institutions : Future of the Republic ; Government and 
Science; Revolution in Congress; Voluntary powers of government; 
Free consent the basis of our laws. — A general estimate of Garfield's 
genius 308-402 



viii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER X. 

THE CLIMAX OF 1880. 



PAGES 



American political parties. — The Third Term question. — The Grant move- 
. ment. — Leaders of the Stalwarts. — The political " Machine." — Contrast 
of Garfield and Conkling. — Gathering of the clans. — Grant and Anti- 
Grant. — The Unit Eule. — A truce. — Hoar for Chairman. — Skirmishes. — 
Blaine's forces. — Adjournments. — Gloomy Friday. — Rule VIII. — Put- 
ting in nomination. — Speeches of Frye, Conkling, and Garfield. — The 
balloting. — Garfield and Arthur nominated 403-442 



-■o- 



CHAPTER XL 

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 

Delicate position of a presidential candidate. — The policy of mum. — Gar- 
field's theory of running for office. — He is notified of his nomination. — 
Hoar's speech. — The reply. — The journey to Cleveland. — Reception and 
speech at ELiram. — Address atPainesville. — The shrine of Mentor. — Gar- 
field visits Washington. — Speaks to the people. — At Painesville. — Speech 
at the Dedication of the Soldiers' Monument. — Letter of Acceptance. — 
The issues of the campaign. — Speaks at the Dedication of the Geneva 
Monument. — Visits New York. — At Chatauqua. — Attends reunion at 
Ashland. — Addresses the soldiers at Mentor. — The October election. — 
The saintly pilgrims on their way. — A candidate who dares to talk. — 
Speeches to the pilgrims. — The mud-mill. — Morey ct al. — The machine 
bursts and the millers get the mud. — Judgment Day. — Garfield is 
elected. — Speaks to the Electors of Ohio. — Address to the Carolina Del- 
egation. — Conkling visits Mentor. — The departure for Washington. — 
Last speech at Mentor. — En route for the inauguration 443-485 

CHAPTER XII. 

IN THE HIGH SEAT. 

Morning of the Fourth of March. — Conspiracy of the elements. — Prepara- 
tions. — The procession. — Clears up. — The Grand Ceremony. — Inaugural 
address. — Setting up in business. — The new Cabinet. — The temperance 
question.— The Administration on its feet.— The pro and con of a Called 
Session of Congress. — Nomination of Robertson. — The Refunding 
Question. — Dearth of politics. — Symptoms of a family quarrel. — The is- 
sues involved in it. — The Robertson appointment. — Exeunt Conkling 
and Piatt. — A President who has his own way. — Smoother sailing after 
the storm. — Adjournment of Congress. — Sickness in the White House. — 
Sympathy of the people for Mrs. Garfield. — The Summer, what shall we 
do with it? 486-516 



CONTENTS. IX 

CHAPTER XIII. 

SHOT DOWN. 

PAGES 

Recovery of Mrs. Garfield. — A great tragedy. — First alarms. — The physicians 
of the President. — The a^isassin. — The world's sympathy. — A dolorous 
Fourth. — Diagnosis. — Motives of the assassin. — General Arthur. — Favor- 
able progress of the President. — Conkling's letter on murder. — The Pres- 
ident's mental condition. — Sunday. — Heated weather. — The refrigera- 
tors. — Mistaken diagnosis. — Foreign sympathies. — The Induction Bal- 
ance. — The Mrs. Garfield Fund. — Supposed convalescence. — President 
worse.— Surgical operations. — Sensational dispatches. — Possible ma- 
laria. — Induction Balance again. — Surgeons hopeful. — A second opera- 
tion. — Last letter. — Project of removal. — Dangerous symptoms. — Mrs. 
Garfield. — A good queen. — Cheerful and brave. — The inflamed parotid. — 
Pyaemia feared. — Gradual decline. — Death imminent. — Removal deter- 
mined on. — Preparations. — Night scene at Elberon 517-615 

CHAPTER XIV. 

GAZING ON THE SEA. 

The President is removed to Long Branch. — Scenes and incidents of the 
journey.— Francklyn Cottage. — Revival of hope. — Great solicitude of 
the people. — Foolish confidence of the surgeons. — The President some- 
what revived. — Great anxiety follows. — The last day. — Fatal chill. — 
Mrs. Garfield's heroism. — The gathering shadows. — Death .... 61&-643 

CHAPTER XV. 

THE SOLEMN PAGEANT. 

Preparations for the funeral of the President. — Embalmment. — Accession 
of Gen. Arthur. — The post-mortem. — Astonishing revelations. — An- 
nouncement of the President's death. — The funeral train. — En route for 
Washington. — Lying in state. — Victoria's tribute. — Address of Elder 
Powers. — Viewing the body. — The train for Cleveland. — Reception and 
preparations.— Imposing ceremonies. — The last day. — Closing scenes and 
addresses. — The sepulchre. — Reflections 646-672 



DEATHLESS. 



This man hath reared a monument more grand 

Than sculptured bronze, and loftier than the height 

Of regal pyramids in Ilemphian sand, 

WJiich not the raging tempest nor the might 
Of the loud North-wind shall assailing blight, 

Nor years unnumbered nor the lapse of time ! 
Not all of him shall jyerish ! for the bright 

And deathless part shall spurn with foot sublime 

The darkness of the grave — the dread and sunless clime! 

He shall be sung to all posterity 

With freshening praise, where in the morning's glow 
Tlie farm-boy with his harnessed team shall be, 

A7id lohere Ncic England's swifter rivers flow 

And orange groves of Alabama bloio — 
Strong in humility, and great to lead 

A mighty people ichere the ages go ! 
Take then thy station, illustrious dead / 
And place, Immortal Fame, the garland on his head ! 

— Hokace: B, m., Ode xxx. 



(x) 



LIFE AXD AVOHK 



OF 



JA^IES A. GAEMELD. 



CHAPTER I. 

EIRTH AND ANCESTRY. 

Genius delights in hatching her offspring in out-of-the-way T^laces— Irving. 

When some great Avork is waiting to be done, 

And Destiny ransacks the city for a man 

To do it; finding none therein, she turns 

To the fecundity of Nature's woods, 

And there, beside some Western hill or stream, 

She enters a rude cabin unannounced, 

And ere the rough frontiersman from his toil. 

Where all day long he hews the thickets down, 

Returns at evening, she salutes his wife, 

His fair young wife, and says, Behold ! thou art 

The Mother of the Future! — Anomjmovs. 

MEN, like books, have their beginnings. James Abram Gar- 
field was born on the 19th clay of November, 1831. His 
lirst outlook upon things was from a cabin door in Cuyahoga 
County, Ohio. The building was of rough logs, with mud be- 
tween the cracks, to keep out the winter cold. The single room 
had a ])iincheon floor, and on one side a large fire-place, with a 
blackened crane .for cooking purposes. In winter evenings, a 
vast pile of blazing logs in this fire-place filled the cabin with a 
•cheerful warmth and ruddy glow. Overhead, from the rude raft- 
ers, hung rows of well-cured hams, and around the mud chimney 
were long strings of red-pepper pods and dried pumpkins. The 
furniture was as primitive as the apartment. A puncheon table, 
a clumfey cupboard, a couple of large bedsteads, made by driving 
stakes in the floor, some blocks for seats, and a well-ke])t. gun, 



12 



LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 



almost complete the catalogue. The windows had greased paper 
instead of glass ; and, in rough weather, were kept constantly closed 
with heavy shutters. 

Stepping out of doors, one would see that the cabin stood on 
the edge of a small clearing of some twenty acres. On the south, 
at a little distance, stood a solid log barn, differing from the house 

only in having open 
cracks. The barn-yard 
had a worm fence around 
it, and contained a heavy 
ox-wagon and a feeding- 
trough for hogs. Skirt- 
ing the clearing on all 
sides was the forest pri- 
meval, which, on the 19th 
of November, the frost 
had already transfigured 
with gold and scarlet 
splendors. Cold winds 
whistled through the 
branches, and thick show- 
ers of dry leaves fell rustling to the ground. 

Already the cabin shutters were closed for the winter; already 
the cattle munched straw and fodder at the barn, instead of roam- 
ing through the forest for tender grass and juicy leaves ; already 
a huge wood-pile appeared by the cabin door. The whole place 
had that sealed-up look which betokens the approach of winter at 
the farm-house. The sun rose late, hung low in the sky at high 
noon ; and, after feeble effort, sunk early behind the western forest. 
Well for the brave pioneers is it, if they are ready for a long and 
bitter struggle with the winter. 

So much for the home. But what of the family? Who and 
what are they? As the babe sleeps in its mother's arms, what 
prophecy of its destiny is there written in the red pages of the 
blood ancestral? 

In America, the Southern States have been the land of splendid 




THE GARFIELD CABIN. 



J 



BIRTH AND ANCESTRY.— LAW OF HEREDITY. 13 

hospitality, chivalric manners, and aristocratic lineage; the West 
the laud of courage, enterprise, and practical executive ability; 
but the Xew England States have been preeminently the home 
of intellectual genius and moral heroism. From New England 
came both the father and mother of James A. Garfield, and it 
means much. But there are reasons for looking at his ancestry 
more closely. 

The law of heredity has long been suspected, and, in late years, 
has been, to a considerable extent, regarded as the demonstrated and 
universal order of nature. It is the law by which the offspring in- 
herits the qualities and characteristics of its ancestors. It makes 
the oak the same sort of a tree as the parent, from which the seed 
acorn fell. It makes a tree, which sprang from the seed of a large 
j^each, yield downy fruit as large and luscious as the juicy ancestor. 
It says that every thing shall produce after its kind ; that small 
radishes shall come from the seed of small radishes, and a richly 
perfumed geranium from the slip cut from one of that kind. It 
says that, other things being equal, the descendants of a fast horse 
shall be fast, and the posterity of a plug shall be plugs. It says 
that a Jersey cow, with thin cars, straight back, and copious yield 
of rich milk, shall have children like unto herself. But a man 
has many more qualities and possibilities than a vegetable or a 
brute. He has an infinitely wider range, through which his char- 
acteristics may run. The color of his hair, his size, his strength, 
are but the smallest part of his inheritance. He inherits also the 
size and texture of his brain, the shape of his skull, and the skill 
of his hands. It is among his ancestry that must be sought the 
reason and source of his powers. It is there that is largely de- 
termined the question of his capacity for ideas, and it is from his 
ancestry that a man should form his ideas of his capacity. It is 
there that are largely settled the matters of his tastes and temper, 
of his ambitions and his powers. The question of whether he 
shall be a mechanic, a tradesman, or a lawyer, is already settled 
before he gets a chance at the problem. 

The old myth about the gods holding a council at the birth of 
every mortal, and determining his destiny, lias some truth in it 



14 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

In one respect it is wrong. The council of the gods is held years 
before his birth ; it has been in session all the time. If a man 
has musical skill, he gets it from his ancestry. It is the same 
with an inventor, or an artist, or a scholar, or a preacher. This 
looks like the law of fate. It is not. It is the fate of law. 

But this is not all of the law of inheritance. Men have an in- 
herited moral nature, as well as an intellectual one. Drunken- 
ness, sensuality, laziness, extravagance, and pauperism, are handed 
down from father to son. Appetites are inherited, and so are 
habits. On the other hand, courage, energy, self-denial, the power 
of work, are also transmitted and inherited. If a man's ancestry 
were thieves, it will not do to trust him. If they were bold, true, 
honest men and women, it will do to rely upon him. 

In late years, this law of inheritance has been much studied by 
scientists. The general law is about as has been stated; but it 
has innumerable offsets and qualifications which are not under- 
stood. Sometimes a child is a compound of the qualities of both 
parents. More frequently the son resembles the mother, and the 
daughter the father. Sometimes the child resembles neither par- 
ent, but seems to inherit every thing from an uncle or aunt. Often 
the resemblance to the grand-parent is the most marked. That 
these complications are governed by fixed, though, at present, un- 
known laws, can not be doubted ; but for the purposes of biog- 
raphy the question is unessential. 

Scientists say that nine-tenths of a man's genius is hereditary, 
and one-tenth accidental. The inherited portion may appear large, 
but il is to be remembered that only possihilities are inherited, and 
that not one man in a ni'dUon reaches the limit of his possibilities. 
If the lives of the ancestors of James A. Garfield were studied, 
we could tell what his possibilities were; while, by studying the 
life of Garfield himself, we see how nearly he realized those pos- 
sibilities. This is the reason why biography interests itself in a 
man's ancestors. They furnish the key to the situation. 

Of the many classes of colonists who settled this continent, by 
far the most illustrious were the Puritans and the Huguenots. 
Their names, alike invented as epithets of contempt and derision, 



BIRTH AND ANCESTRY.— THE GARFIELDS. 15 

have become the brightest on the historic page. Their fame rests 
upon their sacrifices. Not for gokl, nor adventure, nor discovery, 
did they seek the forest-wrapped continent of North America, but 
for the sake of worshiping God according to the dictates of their 
own consciences. Different in nationality, language, and tempera- 
ment — the one from the foggy isle of England, the other from the 
sunny skies of France — they alike fled from religious persecution ; 
the Puritan from that intolerance and bigotry which cost Charles 
I. his head and revolutionized the English monarchy ; the Hugue- 
not from the withdrawal of the last vestige of religious liberty by 
Louis XIV. The proudest lineage which an American can trace 
is to one or the other of these communities of exiles. — In James 
A. Garfield these two currents of noble and heroic blood met and 
mingled. 

The first ancestor, by the name of Garfield, of whom the fimiily 
have any record, is Edward Garfield, a Puritan, who, for the sake 
of conscience, in 1G36, left his home near the boundary line of 
England and Wales, and joined the colony of the distinguished 
John Winthrop, at Watertown, Massachusetts. He appears to 
have been a plain farmer, of deep, religious convictions, and much 
respected by the community in which he lived. Of his ancestry, 
only two facts are known. One is that no book of the peerage or 
list of English nobility ever contained the name of Garfield. The 
other is that, at some time in the past, possibly during the Cru- 
sades, the family had received, or adopted, a coat of arms. The 
device was a golden shield crossed by three crimson bars ; in one 
corner a cross ; in another a heart ; above the shield an arm and 
hand grasping a sword. A Latin motto, " In cruce vinco," — " In 
the cross I conquer," — completed the emblem. It is probable that 
the family had been soldiers, not unlikely in a religious war. The 
wife of Edward Garfield was a fair-haired girl from Germany.— 
To the brave heart and earnest temper of the Welshman, was added 
the persistence and reflectiveness of the German mind. Of their 
immediate descendants, but little can be told. Like the ancestor 
they were 

"To fortune and to fame unknown." 



' i 



16 IJFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

But they were honest and respected citizens— tillers of the soil 
-^ot infrequently holding some local position as selectman or 
captain of militia. Five of the lineal descendants are said to 
sleep in the beautiful cemetery in Watertown, "careless alike of 
sunshine and of storm." 

Tracing the family history down to the stirring and memorable 
period of^'the American Revolution, the name which has now be- 
come historic emerges from obscurity. The spirit of Puritanism, 
which had braved the rigors of life in the colonies rather than 
abate one jot of its intellectual liberty, nourished by hardship and 
strengthened by misfortune, had been handed down by the law of 
inheritance through eight peaceful generations. It was the spirit 
which resented oppression, demanded liberty, and fought for prin- 
ciple till the last dollar was spent, and the last drop of blood was 
shed in her cause. 

We might have calculated on the descendants of the Puritan 
colonist being in the front of battle from the very outbreak of the 
War for Independence. It was so. They were there. They 
were the kind of men to be there. Abraham Garfield, great-uncle 
of the President, took part in the first real battle of the Revolu- 
tion, the fight at Concord Bridge, which fixed the status of the 
Colonies as that of rebellion. On the fourth day after the blood- 
letting the following affidavit was drawn up and sworn to before a 

magistrate : 

Lexington, April 23, 1775. 
" We, John Hoar, John Whithead, Abraham Garfield, Benjamin Mun- 
roe, Isaac Parker, WilHam Hosmer, John Adams, Gregory Stone, all 
of Lincoln, in the County of Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay, all of law- 
ful age, do testify and say, that on Wednesday last, we were assembled 
at Concord, in the morning of said day, in consequence of information 
received that a brigade of regular troops were on their march to the 
said town of Concord, who had killed six men at the town of Lexing- 
ton. About an hour afterwards we saw them approaching, to the num- 
ber, as Ave apprehended, of about 1,200, on which we retreated to a 
hill about eighty rods back, and the said troops then took possession of 
the hill where we were first posted. Presently after this we saw the 
troops moving toward the North Bridge, about one mile from the said 




MOTHER OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 




GEN. (tAKHELD ADDREsfelNG THE PEOI LE Ai CLEVELAND. 




RECEPTION TO GEN. GARFIELD AFTER THE NOMINATION. 






/ 



BIRTH AND ANCESTRY.— THE GARFIELDS. 17 

Concoi-d meeting-house; we then immediately wont before them and 
passed the bridge, just before a party of them, to the number of about two 
hundred, arrived ; they there left about one-half of their two liutulied nt 
the bridge, and proceeded with the rest toward Col. Barrett's, about two 
miles from the said bridge ; and the troops that were stationed there, ob- 
serving our approach, marched back over the bridge and then took up 
some of tiie planks ; we then hastened our march toward the bridge, and 
\vheu we had got near the bridge they fired on our men, first three guns, 
one after the other, and then a considerable number more; and then, and 
not before (having orders from our commanding officers not to fire till 
we were fired upon), we fired upon the regulars and they retreated. 
On their retreat through the town of Lexington to Charlestown, they 
ravaged and destroyed private property, and burnt three houses, one 
barn, and one shop." 

The act of signature to that paper was one of the sublimest 
courage. It identified the leaders of the fight ; it admitted and 
justified the act of firing on the troops of the government ! It 
■seemed almost equal to putting the executioner's noose around 
their necks. But to such men, life was a feather-w'cight compared 
to prinei[)le. If the Colonies Avere to be roused to rebellion and 
revolution, the truth of that fight at Concord bridge had to be 
laid before the people, accompanied by proofs that could not be 
questionctl. The patriots not only did the deed but shouldered 
the responsibility. Of the signers with Abraham Garfield, John 
Hoar was the great-grandfather of Senator George F. Hoar, ])rc- 
siding offic^^r of the convention which nominated James A. Guv- 
iield for the Presidency. 

Solomon Cirarficid, brother of Abraham, and great-grandfather 
■of the subject of this history, had married Sarah Stimj)son in 
1766, and was living at Weston, Massachusetts, when the war 
broke out. I^ittle is known of him except that he was a soldier 
of the Revolution, and came out of the war alive, but impover- 
ished by the loss of his property. He soon moved to (Jtsego 
County, New York, where one of his sons, Thomas Garfield, mar- 
ried. It was on the latter's farm, in December, 1799, that was 
born Abram Garfield, the ninth lineal descendant of the PuiitLn, 
and father of the man whose name and fame are henceforth '/..e 

2 



18 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

heritage of all mankind. Two years after the birth of Abram, 
his father died suddenly and tragically, leaving his young widow 
and several children in most adverse circumstances. When about 
twelve years old, Abram, a stout sun-burnt little fellow, fell in 
Avith a playmate two years younger than himself, named Eliza 
Ballon, also a widow's child whose mother had recently moved to 
Worcester, Otsego County, New York, where the Garfields were 
living. In that childhood friendship lay the germ of a romantic 
love, of which the fruit was to be more important to men and to 
history than that of the most splendid nuptials ever negotiated in 
the courts of kings. 

James Ballon, Eliza's older brother, impatient of the wretched 
poverty in which they dwelt, persuaded his mother to emigrate to 
Ohio. The emigrant wagon, with its jaded horses, its muddy 
white cover, its much jostled load of household articles, and its 
sad-eyed and forlorn occupants! How the picture rises before the 
eyes ! What a history it tells of poverty and misfortune ; of dis- 
appointment and hardship ; of a wretched home left behind, yet 
dear to memory because left behind ; of a still harder life ahead in 
the western wilderness toward which it wends its weary way ! 
ISIore showy equipages there have been. The Roman chariot, the 
English stage-coach, and the palace railway train, have each been 
taken up and embalmed in literature. But the emigrant wagon, 
richer in association, closer to the heart-throb, more familiar with 
tears than smiles, has found no poet who would stoop to the lowly 
theme. In a few years the emigrant wagon will be a thing of 
the i)ast, and forgotten ; but though we bid it farewell forever, let it 
have a high place in the American heart and history, as the pre- 
cursor of our cities and our civilization. 

Thus the boy and girl were separated. Abram Garfield was 
brought up as a " bound boy " by a farmer named Stone. While 
he was filling the place of chore boy on the New York farm, Eliza 
Ballon, having something more than an ordinary education, taught 
a summer school in the Ohio v^ilderness. It is said that one 
day, in a terrific storm, a red bolt of lightning shot through the 
cabin roof, smiting teacher and scholars to the floor, thus breaking 



BIRTH AND ANCESTRY— THE BALL0U9. 19 

up the scliool. The s])irit of tragedy seems to have hovered over 
her entire life. 

Love laughs at difllieulties and delays, and in a few years after 
the Ballon emigration, Abrani Garlield, a " stalwart" of the earlier 
and better kind, tramped his muddy way along the same roads, 
across the same rivers, and — strange, was it not? — to the verv cabin 
where the emigrant wagon had stopped. Swift flew the shining 
days of courtship; and Eliza Ballou became Eliza Ballon Garfield, 
the mother of the President. 

Eliza Ballou was a lineal descendant of ]\Iaturin Ballou, a French 
Huguenot, who, about the year 1685, upon the Revocation of the 
Edict of Kantcs, fled from the smiling vineyards of France to the 
ruo-ged but libertv-o:iving land of America. Joinino; the colony of 
Roger Williams, at Cumberland, Rhode Island, which had adopted 
for its principle "In civil matters, law; in religious matters, lib- 
erty," he built a queer old church, from the pulpit of which he 
thundered forth his philippics against religious intolerance. The 
building still stands, and is a curiosity of architecture. Not a nail 
was used in its construction. For generation after g'eneration the 
descendants of this man were eloquent preachers, occupying the 
very ]>nlpit of their ancestor. Their names arc famous. Thej 
were men of powerful intellects, thorough culture, and splendid 
characters. Their posterity has enriched this country with many 
distinguished lawyers, soldiers, and politicians. They were a su- 
perior family from the first, uniting to brilliant minds a spotless 
integrity, an indomitable energy, and the burning and elocjuent 
gifts of the orator. The best known member of the fiimily is Rev. 
Hosea Ballou, the founder of the Universalist Church in America, 
of whom Eliza Ballou was a grand-niece. He was a man of wide 
intellectual activity, a prolific and powerful writer, and made a 
marked impress on the thought of his generation. 

From this brief view of the ancestry of James A. Garfield, it is 
easy to sec that there was the hereditary preparation for a great 
man. From the father's side came great physical power, large 
bones, big muscles, and an immense brain. From the father's line 
also came the heritage of profound conviction, of a lofty and re- 



20 ' LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

sistless courage, which was ready anywhere to do and die for the 
truth, and of the exhaustless patience which was the product of 
ten trenerations of tillino; the soil. On the other hand, the Bal- 
lous were small of stature, of brilliant and imaginative minds, of 
impetuous and energetic temperament, of the finest grain, physically 
and mentally. They were scholars ; people of books and culture, 
and, above all, they were orators. From them, albeit, came the 
intellectual equipment of their illustrious descendant. From the 
mother, Garfield inherited the love of books, the capacity for 
ideas, the eloquent tongue, and the tireless energy. To the ear- 
nest solidity and love of liberty of the Welshman, Edward Garfield, 
mixed with the reflective thought of the fair-haired German wife, 
was added the characteristic clearness and vivacity of the French 
mind. 

The trend of Garfield's mind could not have been other than 
deeply religious. The Ballous, for ten generations, had been 
preachers. No man could combine in himself the Puritan and 
Huguenot without being a true worshiper of God. On the other 
hand, while 'Puritans and Huguenots were at first religious sects, 
their struggles were with the civil power; so that each of them in 
time became the representative of the deepest political life of their 
respective nationalities. Through both father and mother, there- 
fore, came a genius for politics and affairs of state ; the conserva- 
tism of the sturdy Briton being quickened by the radicalism, the 
genius for reform which belongs to the mercurial Frenchman. 
From both parents would also come a liberality and breadth of 
mind, v/hich distinguishes only a few great historic characters. 
The large, slow moving, good natured Garfields were by tempera- 
ment far removed from bigotry ; while the near ancestor of the 
mother had been excommunicated from the Baptist Church, be- 
cause ho thouirht God was merciful enoufdi to save all mankind 
from tlie flames of ultimate perdition. 

In Garfield's ancestry there was also a vein of military genius. 
The coat of arms, the militia captaincy of Benjamin Garfield, the 
affidavit of Abraham at Concord bridge, arc the outcroppings on 
the father's side. The mother was a near relative of General Rufus 



BIETII AND A^X•EST^vY.— A CATASTROPHE. 21 

Ino-alls; and h^r brotlicr, for ^vh()lu the President was named, was 
a brave soldier in the war of 1812. 

These, then, arc some of the prophecies which had been spoken 
of the child that was born in the Garfield cabin in the fall of 
1831. Future biographers will, perhaps, make more extended in- 
vestigations, but we have seen something, in the language of the 
dead hero himself, "of those latent forces infolded in the vSpirit 
of the new-born child ; forces that may date back centuries and 
find their origin in the life and thoua-hts and deeds of remote an- 
cestors; forces, the germs of which, envelopc<i in the awful mys- 
tery of life, have been transmitted silently from generation to gen- 
eration, and never perish." As we pursue his history wc will see 
these various forces cropping out in his career ; at one time the 
scholar, at another, the preacher ; at others, the soldier, the orator, 
or the statesman, but always, always the man. 

For two years after the birth of their youngest child James, the 
lives of Abram and Eliza Garfield flowed on peacefully and hope- 
fully enough. The children were growing; the little farm im- 
proving ; new settlers were coming in daily ; and there began to 
be much expected from the new system of internal improvements. 
With happy and not unhopeful hearts they looked forward to a 
future of comfortable prosperity. But close by the cradle gapes 
the grave. Every fire-side has its tragedy. In one short hour 
this happy, peaceful life \yas fled. The fire fiend thrust his torch 
into the dry forests of north-western Ohio, in the region of the 
Garfield home. In an instant, the evening sky was red with 
flame. It was a moment of horror. Sweeping on through the 
blazing tree-tops with the speed of the wind came the tornado of 
fire. Destruction seemed at hand, not only of crops and fences, 
but of barns, houses, stock, and of the people themselves. In 
this emergency, the neighbors for miles around gathered under 
the lead of Abram Garfield to battle for all that was near and 
dear. A plan of work Mas swiftly formed. Hour after hour 
they toiled with superhuman eifort. Choked and blinded by vol- 
umes of smoke, with scorched hands and singed brows, they 
fouo'ht the flames hand to hand till, at last, the current of death 



22 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

was turned aside. The little neighborhood of settlers was saved. 
Bat the terrific exertions put forth by Abraiu Garfield had ex- 
hausted him beyond the reach of recuperation. Returning home, 
from the night of toil, and incautiously exposing himself, ho was 
attacked with congestion of the lungs. Every effort to relieve the 
sufferer was made by the devoted wife. Every means known to her 
Avas used to rally the exhausted vitality, but in vain. Chill followed 
chill. The vital powers v*-ere exhausted, and the life-tide ebbed fast 
away. In a few hours the rustle of black wings was heard in that 
lowly home in the wilderness. Calling his young wife to him he 
whispered, " Eliza, you will soon be alone. We have planted four 
saplings here in these woods ; I leave them to your care." One last 
embrace from the grief-stricken wife and children ; one more look 
tlirough the open door at the little clearing and the circling forest, 
over which the setting sun was throwing its latest rays, and the he- 
roic spirit had departed. Little by little the darkness of the night 
without came in and mingled with the darkness of the night within. 
Though stunned by this appalling calamity, Eliza Ballon Gar- 
field, true to the heroic ancestry from which she sprung, took up 
the burden of life with invincible courage. The prospect was a 
hard one. Of the four children, the oldest, Thomas, was ten 
years of age ; the two little girls ranged at seven and four, and the 
blue-eyed baby, James, had seen only twenty months. On the 
other hand, the widow's resources were scanty indeed. The little 
farm was only begun. To make a farm in a timber country is a 
life task for the stoutest man. Years and years of arduous toil 
Avould be required to fell the timber, burn the stumps, grub out 
the roots, and fence the fields before it could really be a farm. 
Worse than this, the place was mortgaged. The little clearing of 
twenty acres, with the im]>erfcct cultivation which one weak wom- 
an, unaided, could give it, had to be depended on, not only to 
furnish food for herself and the four children, but to pay taxes 
and interest on the mortgage, and gradually to lesson the princi- 
pal of the debt itself. The pioneer population of the country was 
as poor as herself, hardly able to raise sufficient grain for bread, 
and reduced almost to starvation by the failure of a single crop. 



BIRXn AND ANCESTRY.— THE WIDOW'S STRUGGLE. 23 

So fearful were the odds against the plucky little widow that her 
friends pointed out the overwhelming difficulties of the situation, 
and earnestly advised her to let her children be distributed among 
the neighbors for bringing up. Firmly but kindly she put aside 
their well-meant efforts. With invincible courage and an iron 
will, she Siiid : " ISIy family must not l)e separated. It is my 
wish and duty to raise these children myself. No one can care 
for them like a mother." It is from such a mother that great 
men are born. She lost no time in irresolution, but plunged at 
once into the rouchest sort of men's labor. The wheat-field Avas 
only half fenced; the precious harvest which was to be their suste- 
nance through the winter was still ungathercd, and would be de- 
stroyed by roving cattle, which had been turned loose during the 
forest fires. The emergency had to be met, and she met it. 
Finding in the woods some trees, fresh fallen beneath her hus- 
band's glittering ax, she commenced the hard work of splitting 
rails. At first she succeeded poorly ; her hands became blistered, 
her arms sore, and her heart sick. But with practice she im- 
proved. Her small arms learned to swing the maul with a steady 
stroke. Day by day the worm fence crawled around the wheat 
field, until the ends met. 

The highest heroism is not that which manifests itself in some 
single great and splendid crisis. It is not found on the battle- 
field where regiments dash forward upon blazing batteries, and in 
ten minutes are either conquerors or corpses. It is not seen at 
the stake of martyrdom, where, for the sake of opinion, men for a 
few moments endure the unimaginable tortures of the flames. It 
is not found in the courtly tournaments of the past, where knights, 
in glittering armor, flung the furious lance of defiance into the 
face of their foe. Splendid, heroic, are these all. But there is 
a heroism grander still; it is the heroism which endures, not 
merely for a moment, but through the hard and bitter toils of a 
life-time; which, when the inspiration of the crisis has passed 
away, and weary years of hardship stretch their stony path before 
tired feet, cheerfully takes up the burden of life, undaunted and 
undismayed. In all the annals of the brave, who, in all time.-, 



24 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIEI.D. 

liave suffered and endured, there is no scene more touching than 
the picture of this widow toiling for her chikh-en. 

The annals of this period of life in the Garfield cabin are sim- 
])le. But biography, when it has for its theme one of the lofliest 
men that ever lived, loves to busy itself with the details of his 
childhood and to try to trace in them the indications of future great- 
]iess. The picture of that life has been given by the dauntless 
woman herself In the spring of the year, the little corn patch 
was broken up with an old-fashioned wooden plow with an iron 
share. At first the ox-team was mostly driven by the widow 
herself, but Tom, the oldest boy, soon learned to divide the labor. 
The baby was left with his older sister, while the mother and 
older son worked at the plow, or dtaggcd a heavy tree branch — 
a primitive harrow — over the clods. When the seed was to be 
put in, it was by the same hands. The garden, with its precious 
store of potatoes, beans, and cabbages, came in for no small share 
of attention, for these were the luxuries of the frugal table. From 
the first Tom was able largely to attend to the few head of 
stock on the little place. When a hog was to be killed for cur- 
ing, some neighbor was given a share to perform the act of 
slaughter. The mysteries of smoking and curing the various 
parts were well understood by Mrs. Garfield. At harvest, also, the 
neighbors would lend a hand, the men helping in the field, and 
the women at the cabin preparing dinner. Of butter, milk, and 
eggs, the children always had a good supply, even if the table 
was in other respects meager. There was a little orchard, planted 
by the father, which thrived immensely. In a year or two the 
trees were laden with rosy fruit. Cherries, plums, and apples 
peeped out from their leafy homes. The gathering was the chil- 
dren's job, and they made it a merry one. 

From the first the Garfield children performed tasks beyond their 
years. Corn-planting, weed-pulling, potato-digging, and the count- 
less jobs which have to be performed on every farm, were shared 
by them. The first winter was one of the bitterest privation. The 
supplies were so scanty that the mother, unobserved by the four 
hungry little folks, would often give her share of the meal to them. 



BIRTH AND ANCESTKY.— EARLIEST LESSON. . 25 

But after the first Aviator, the bitter edge of poverty wore off. The 
exeeutive ability of the little widow began to tell on the family 
affairs. In the following spring, the mortgage on the plaee was 
canceled by selling off fifty of the eighty acres. In the absence 
of money, the mother made exchanges of work — sewing for grocer- 
ies, spinning for cotton, and washing for shoes. In time, too, the 
children came to be a valuable help. 

But thouo-h this life was busv and a hard one, it was not all 
that occupied the attention of the family. The Garfield cabin had 
an inner life ; a life of thought and love as well as of economy and 
work. ]\Irs. Garfield liad a head for books as well as business. 
Her husband and herself had been members of the Church of the 
Disciples, followers of Alexander Campbell. In her widowhood, 
for years she and her children never missed a sabbath in attending 
the church three miles away. If ever there was an earnest, honest 
Christian, Eliza Garfield was one. A short, cheerful prayer each 
morniug, no matter how early she and the children rose, a word of 
thankfulness at the beginning of every meal, no matter how meager, 
and a thoughtful, quiet Bible-reading and prayer at night, formed 
part of that cabin life. Feeling keenly the poor advantages of the 
children in the wav of education, she told them much of historv 
and the world, and thus around her knee they learned from the 
loving teacher lessons not taught in any college. When James 
was five years old, his older sister for awhile carried him on her 
back to the log school-house, a mile and a half distant, at a place 
dignified with the name of a village, though it contained only a 
store, blacksmith shop, and the school. But the school Avas too 
far away. The enterprise of Mrs. Garfield was nowhere better 
jhoAvn than in her offering the land, and securing a school-house 
on her own farm. She was determined on her children having the 
best education the wilderness afforded, and they had it. 

But the four childnMi were strangely different. They had the 
same ancestry, and tli(> same surroundings. AVho could have 
foretold the wide difference of their destinies? The girls were 
cheerful, industrious, and lovnig. They were fair scholars at the 
country school, and were much thought of iu the neighborhood. 



26 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

At a very early age they took from the tired mother's shoulders a 
hirgc share of the work of the little household. They carded, 
spmi, wove, and mended the boys' clothes when they were but 
children themselves. They beautified the rough little home, and 
added a cheery joy to its plain sm-roundings. They were superior 
to the little society in which they mingled, but not above it. 
There were apple-parings, corn-huskings, quilting-bees, apple- 
butter and maple-sugar boilings, in which they were the ring- 
leaders of mischief— romping, cheerful, healthy girls, happy in 
spite of adversity, ambitious only to make good wives and 

mothers. 

Thomas, the elder brother, was a Garfield out and out. He w^as 
a plodding, self-denying, quiet boy, with the tenderest love for his 
mother, and without an ambition beyond a farmer's life. When 
the other children went to school, he staid at home "to work," he 
said, "so that the girls and James might get an education." For 
himself he " would do without it." Wise, thoughtful, and patient, 
he was the fit successor of the generations of Garfields who liad 
held the plow-handle before he was born. Without a complaint, 
of his own will he worked year aft^r year, denying himself every 
thing that could help his brother James to education and an ambi- 
tious manhood. For from the first, mother and children felt that 
in the youngest son lay the hope of the family. 

James took precociously to books, learning to read early, and 
knowing the English reader almost by heart at eight yews of age. 
His first experience at the school built on the home farm is worth 
noting. The seats were hard, the scene new and exciting, and his 
stout little frame tingled w^ith restrained energy. He squirmed, 
twisted, writhed, peeped under the seats and over his shoulder; 
lied his legs in a knot, then untied them ; hung his head backwards 
till the blood almost burst forth, and in a thousand ways manifested 
his restlessness. Re|)roofs did no good. At last the well-mean- 
ing teacher told James's mother that nothing could be made of the 
boy. With tears in her eyes the fond, ambitious mother talked to 
the little fellow that night in the fire-light. The victory was a 
triumph of love. The boy returned to school, still restless, but 



BIRTH AND ANCESTRY.— BOYHOOD TRAITS. 27 

studious as well. At the cud of the term he received a copy of 
the New Testament as a prize for being the best reader in tlie 
school. The restlessness, above mentioned, seems to have followed 
him through life. Sleeping with Kis brother he would kick the 
cover oif at night, and then say, ''Thomas, cover me up." A mil- 
itary friend relates that, during the civil war, atl:er a day of terri- 
ble bloodshed, lying with a distinguished officer, the cover came 
off in the old way, and he murmured in his sleep, " Thomas, cover 
me up." AVakened by the sound of his ov.n voice, he became 
aware of what he had said ; and then, thinking of the old cabin 
life, and the obscure but tender-hearted brother, General Garfield 
burst into tears, and wept himself to sleep. 

The injtluences surrounding the first ten or twelve vears of life 
are apt to be underestimated. But it can not be doubted that the 
lessons of child-life learned in the cabin and on the little farm had 
more to do with Garfield's future greatness than all his subsequent 
education. Like each of his parents, he was left without a father 
at the age of two years. If any one class of men have more uni- 
versally risen to prominence than another it has been widow's 
sons. The high sense of responsibility, the habits of economy and 
toil, are a priceless experience. Xone is to be pitied more than 
the child of luxury and fortune, and no one suspects his disadvan- 
tages less. Hated poverty is, after all, the nursery of greatness. 
The discipline which would have crushed a weak soul only served 
to strengthen the rugged and vigorous nature of this boy. 

Tlie stories which come down to us of Garfield's childhood, 
though not remarkable, show that he was different from the boys 
around him. He had a restless, aspiring mind, fond of strong food. 
Every liint of the outside Avorld fascinated him, and roused the 
most pertinacious curiosity. Yet to this wide-eyed interest in 
what lay outside of his life this shock-haired, bare-legged boy 
added an indomitable zeal for work. From dawn to dark he 
toiled; but whether chopping wood, Avorking in tlie field or at 
the barn, it was always with the idea and inspiration that he was 
"helping mother." Glorious loyalty of boyhood ! 



■28 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE STRUGGLE OF BOYHOOD. 

>Sycra;cs.— Alcibiades, what saycst thou tliat is, passing between us and yon wall? 

Akibiadeii.—l should call it, a thing; some call it a boy. 

,S'oc. Nay, I call it neither a thing nor a boy, but rather a young man. By 

Hercules, if I should go further, I should nay that that being is a god in cmbrj^o ! 

Ale. — You are my master, Socrates, or I should say that nature would have hard 
work to hatch a god out of such an object. 

SiH^.—^lost men are fools, Alcibiadcs, because they are unable to discover in tlie 
<»«rm, or even in the growing stalk, the vast possibilities of development. They 
forget the beauty of growth; and, therefore, they reckon not that nature and dis- 
cipline are able to make yon boy as one of the immortals. 

SO the cliild James Garfield advanced into the golden age of 
boyhood. This period we will now briefly live over after him. 
Spring time deepens into early summer; the branches and the leaves 
are swollen with life's yoimg sap ; what manner of fruit will this 
growing tree offer the creative sun to work upon ? 

The young lad, in whom our interest centers, was now, in the 
autumn of 1843, twelve years old, when something new came into 
his life, and gave to him his first definite and well-fixed purpose. 
He had always, and by nature, been industrious. In that little 
farm home, where poverty strove continually to carry the day 
against the combined forces of industry and economy, no service 

was without its value. And, therefore, it had doubtless been a 

* 

delight to all in that narrow circle to observe in James the qual- 
ities of a good worker. He seemed a true child of that wonder- 
ful western country which is yet so young, and so able to turn its 
energies to advantage in every av^ailable way. So, while still too 
young to "make a hand" at any thing, James had found his place 
wherever there was demand for such light duties as he was able 
to perform. At field, barn or cabin, in garden or in kitchen, place 
there was none where the little fellow's powers wore not exercised. 



THE STRUGGLE OF BOYHOOD.— A CARPENTER. 



29 



Instliu't ^vith forces larger than hi.s I'ranie, developnicnt of llieni 
■\vas inevitable. 

But now a great event in the flimily took place. Thomas, who 
had just attained his majority, liad returned from a trip to Mich- 





y'/'i['-/°Jt;ga a:jr.at^ ajJ^taiiMjB^[!»iJ[l&gaM^^ '^J 



GARFIELD AT RIXTEEIST. 

igan with a sum of ready money, and wanted to build his mother 
a new house. Life in the cabin had, in his estimation, been en- 
dured long enougli. Some of tlie materials for a frame buihling 
were already accumulated, and under the directions of a cari)enter 
the work was begun and rapidly jnislied to completion. In all 
these proceedings James took an intense interest, and developed 
such a liking for tools and timber a.s could but signify a member 



30 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

of the Builders' Guild. He resolved to be a carpeutcr; and from 
this day on was never for a moment without an object in life. 

The ambition to "be something" took many dilFercnt turns, 
but was a force which, once created, could never be put down. 
The care and skill requisite to putting a house together, fitting the 
rafters into place, and joining part to part with mathematical pre- 
cision, gave him an idea that these things were of a higher order 
than farm labor. Plain digging would no longer do ; there must 
be abetter chance to contrive something, to conjure up plans and 
ways and means in the brain, and show forth ideas by the skill 
of the hand. Consequently a variety of tools began to accumulate 
about James Garfield. There was a corner somewhere which, in 
imitation of the great carpenter who built their house, he called 
his "shop;" a rough bench, perhaps, with a few planes, and mal- 
lets, and chisels, and saws, and the like, to help in mending the 
gates and doors about the place. No independent farm can get 
along without such help, and of course these services were in con- 
stant demand. 

The dexterity thus acquired soon led to earnings abroad. The 
first money Garfield ever received in this way was one dollar, 
which the village carpenter paid him for planing a hundred boards 
at a cent apiece. His active and earnest performance of evOiy 
duty brought him plenty of oifers, and between the ages of twelve 
and fifteen years he helped to pvit up a number of buildings in that 
district of country, some of which are standing to this day. 

Thus this young life passed away the precious time of the early 
teens. Work and study ; study and work. Hands and feet, mar- 
row and muscle, all steadily engaged in the rugged discipline of 
labor, battling with nature for subsistence. But time rolls on ; 
childhood fast recedes from that glory from the other side 
which fringes the dawn ; and, as we move on, every rising sun 
wakes up a new idea. While our young friend gave his attention 
and strength to industry, his imagination began to live in a new 
world. He had been to school, and still went a few months each 
year; and the following incident will indicate what a good-hearted, 
bright school-boy he was. There was a spelling-match in the lit- 



THE STRUGGLE OF BOYHOOD.— AT SCHOOL. 31 

tic log school-house, in which James, who was thirteen years old, 
look part. The teacher told the scholars that if they whispered 
she would send them home. The lad standing next to James got 
confused, and to help him James told him how to spell the word. 
The teacher saw this, and said : " James, you know the rule ; you 
must go home." James picked up his cap and left. In a very 
few seconds he returned and took his place in the class. "Why, 
how is this, James? I told you to go home," said his teacher. 
" I know it, and I went home," said James. 

But the log school-house, with its mystery of the three R's, was 
not sufficient. James was one of the boys who are born to the 
love of books. Whatever had an intelligent aspect, whatever 
thing had the color and glow of an idea, was by nature attract- 
ive to his mind, and this he sought with eagerness and zeal. 
Therefore, even before the boy could read, his mother had read 
to him ; and afterwards winter evening and leisure summer hour 
alike went swiftly by. The scholar in him hungered for the 
scholar's meat and drink; which means books, and books, and 
never enough of them. 

These people did not have many volumes, but they used them 
only the more, and knew them the better. Among them all, first 
in their aifections, was the Bible. The woman, whose staff at 
eighty, when bowed down under the great sorrow, was the Evcr- 
lastino; Word, loved the Bible in her vouth, and led her children 
to it as to a fnintain of pure water. Thus James early acquired 
some knowledge of the old Bible stories, and it is said was some- 
what fond of showing his superior learning. This he did by ask- 
ing his little friends profound questions, such as: "Who slew 
Absalom?" " What cities were destroyed with fire and brimstone 
from the sky?" And when all luid professed ignorance, he would 
invite their admiration by a revelation of the facts. 

At this period of time, however, it is likely that his lively im- 
agination was more vividly impressed with two or three other 
books which had found their })laces on the book-shelf of the 
Ikjusc — books of adventure, with their thrilling scenes, their deeds 
of danger, dashing and gallant. And accordingly it is related 



3^ LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

that about this time Janies Garfiehl became deeply interested in 
the life of Napoleon, as told by Grimshaw. How eagerly he muet 
have followed out the magical story of that wonderful career of 
glory and l)lood through all its varied windings; seeing first a 
young Corsican lieutenant on the road to Paris, by sudden and 
brilliant successes rising quickly, step by step, but ever on the run, 
to be First Consul of the new French Republic, and then Em- 
peror. Austerlitz, its carnage, its awful crisis, and its splendid 
victory; the terrible Russian campaign, with the untold horrors 
of that memorable retreat before the fierce troops of Cossack rid- 
ers; on, and ever on through the changing fields of bright trans- 
figurations and the Cimmerian darkness of defeat, down to the fell 
catastrophe at Waterloo,— and young Garfield lived and moved in 
it all, like an old soldier of the Imperial Legion. Another brave 
old book he knew was a " Life of Clarion," which had the added 
interest of telling the story of our own first great struggle for lib- 
erty. No wonder then, that, with such food for wild fancies as 
these at hand, James fi'lt in his veins the hot blood of a martial 
hero, and resolved aloud, before his laughing relatives, that he 
meant to " be a soldier, and win great battles, as Napoleon did." 
But the smoke of battle was yet afar off. So on flew the winter 
days and nights at more than lightning speed, in hours of work 
and school, books and dreams, and all the myriad modes and 
moods of human life. So, too, passed the summer time, whose 
busy labors preserved the family from want. Our young farmer 
and carpenter kept ever at the post of duty. Pressed by ne- 
cessity from without, moved from within by the grovdng rest- 
lessness of a spirit which fed on stories of adventure, a nervous 
and ceaseless activity pushed him steadily forward to the new ex- 
periences which only waited fur his coming. Another motive, 
more to the credit of his goodness of heart, which kept James 
busy, was that deathless love for his mother which, from the be- 
ginning, was the chief fountain of all good in his life. He knew 
how the fiiithful widow had lived and worked only for her chil- 
dren ; that her hopes were bound up in their fortunes ; and he 
determined that, as for him, she should not be disappointed. With 






THE STRUGGLE OF BOYHOOD.— HIRING OUT. 33 

this high purpose in mind, ho worked on, — worked on the farm, 
labored on the neighboring farms, exercised his carpentering skill 
in country and in village, till his friends proudly said : " James 
Garfield is the most industrious boy in his neighborhood ; there is 
not a lazy hair on his head." 

When about fifteen years old, in the course of his trade, he was 
called on to assist in the building of an addition to a house, for 
a man who lived several miles away from the home farm. This 
man, whose business was that of a " black-salter," noticed the pe- 
culiar activity and ingenuity displayed by James in his work, and 
took a liking to him. Being in need of such a person, he oifered 
him his board and fourteen dollars a month to stay with him, help 
in the saltery, and superintend the financial part of the concern. 
After some meditation, and a consultation on the subject at home, 
James accepted the oifer. This was against the judgment of Mrs. 
Garfield, whose advice was, at least, always respectfully heard, 
though not always followed. In this business he succeeded well, 
and was expected, by his employer, to make a first-class salter. 
But the spirit of adventure again revived in hira. There came a 
new book, and a new epoch, and the old wish to become an Amer- 
ican Napoleon took a fresh turn. He saw no way to be a soldier. 
The peaceful progress of the Ohio country, fast developing in agri- 
culture and its attendant industries, did not offer very good oppor- 
tunity for a great campaign, and military leadership was, therefore, 
not in demand. 

In this unfortunate conjuncture of civil surroundings with un- 
civil ambitions, James began to read books about the sea. '' Jack 
Halyard " took the place of General Marion ; white sails began 
to spread themselves in his brain ; the story of Nelson and Tra- 
falgar, and the like men and things began to take shape in his 
thought as the central facts of history ; and a life on the ocean 
wave hung aloft before him as the summit of every aspiration 
worth a moment's entertainment. Through all these notions we 
can see only a reflection of the books he read. Give a child 
its first look at the world through blue spectacles, and the world 
will be blue to the child; give a boy his first ideas of tlie world 



J 



n 

f 34 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

beyond his neighborhood by means of soldiers and navies, and he 
will be soldier and sailor at once. James was now approaching 
the age of sixteen years. New force was added to the sea-fever 
by a work named "The Pirate's Own Book." New tales of 
adventure stirred his blood ; he could even sympathize with the 
triumphs of a bold buccaneer, and with the Corsair sing : 

"Oh! who can tell, save he whose heart luith tried, 
And danced in triumph o'er the waters wide, 
The exulting sense, the pulse's maddening play. 
That thrills the wanderer of that trackless way?" 

While in this brittle state of mind no great provocation would 
he need to produce a break with the black-salter. Accordingly, 
an insult, which soon offered, led to a scene and a departure. Some 
member of the family alluded to James as a " servant." In an 
instant his warm blood rose to fever heat ; he refused to stay 
another hour where such things could be said of him. The 
employer's stock of eloquence was too small to change the fiery 
youth's mind; and that night he slept again beneath his mother's 
roof. 

Hitherto the forces and facts which rested in and about James 
A. Garfield had kept him near home; the outward tending move- 
ment now became powerful, and struggled for control. With the 
passion for the sea at its height, he began to consider the situa- 
tion. At home was the dear mother with her great longing 
that he should love books, go to school, and become a man 
among men, educated, a leader, and peer of the best in character 
and intellect. And how could he leave her? The struggle for 
life had not yet become easy on the farm, and his absence would 
be felt. " Leave us not," pleads the home. " The sea, land-lub- 
ber, the wide, free ocean," says the buccaneer within. At this 
point, while he reflected at home on these things, being out of 
employment, a new incident occurred. 

Our young friend had now acquired something more than the 
average strength of a full-grown man. Born of a hardy race, 
constant exercise of so many kinds was giving him extraordinary 
physical power. So he felt equal to the opportunity which oifered 



, ^ 



THE STRUGGLE OF BOYHOOD.— VISION OF THE SEA. 35 

itself, and became a wood-chopper. Twenty-five cords of wood 
were rapidly cut for a reward of seven dollars. The place where 
this was done was near Newburg, a small town close to Cleveland. 
During this time his mother hoped and prayed that the previous 
intention of her son, to go to the lake and become a sailor, would 
weaken, and that he would be led to remain at home ; but fate de- 
creed otherwise. The scene of his wood-cutting exploit was close 
to the lake shore, where the vessels passed at every hour. The 
excitement within him, as each sail went out beyond the horizon, 
never ceased. The story never grew old. The pirate had not 
died, but still plotted for plunder, and hungered for black flags, 
cutlasses and blood. No doubt Garfield would have been a good- 
hearted corsair — one of the generous fellows who plundered Span- 
ish galleons just because their gain had been ill-gotten ; who spared 
the lives and restored the money of the innocent, gave no quarter 
to the real villains, and never let a fair woman go unrescued. 

Returning home from Newburg to see his mother, she persuaded 
him to remain a while longer. Harvest-time would soon approach, 
and his services were needed on the farm. Of course, he stayed ; 
helped them through the season, and even spent some extra time 
working for a neighbor. But the facts of a boy's future some- 
times can not be changed by circumstances. A firm-set resolve 
may be hindered long, but not forever. James Garfield had set 
his head to be a sailor, and a sailor he would be. Farming was 
a very good business, no doubt, and just the thing for the brother 
Thomas, but by no means suited to a young salt like himself 

Now, bright blue waves of Erie, dash against your shores with 
glee, and rise to meet your coming conqueror ! The last family 
prayer was uttered, the good-bye kiss was given ; and mother Gar- 
field stood in the low doorway, peering out through the mists of 
morning, to catch a last glimpse of the boy who has just received 
her parting blessing. The story of that memorable time is already 
well known. AVith a bundle of clothes on a stick, thrown across 
his sturdy shoulder, he trudged along, sometimes wearily, but 
alwav's cheerily, bound for the harbor of Cleveland. The way 
was probably void of noteworthy incidents ; and, with his thoughts 



36 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIFLD. 

all absorbed on what he believed to be his coming experiences on 
deck, he arrived at Cleveland. It was an evening in July of 1848. 
The next morning, after due refreshment and a walk about the 
city, being determined on an immediate employment, he lost no 
more time in hastening toward the rolling deep. Boarding the 
only vessel in port at the time, he strolled about and waited for 
the appearance of his intended captain. The experience of that 
hour was never forgotten. Garfield's ideas of a sailor had thus 
far chiefly come out of books, and Jack, as a swearing tar, he 
was not prepared to meet. Presently a confused sound came up 
from the hold, first faintly muttering, then swelling in volume as 
it came nearer and nearer. Uncertainty about the matter soon 
ceased, however, as the "noble captain's" head appeared, from 
which was issuing rapid volleys of oaths, fired into space, proba- 
bly, as a salute to the glorious god of day. Rough in looks, rude 
in manners, a coarse and petty tyrant on the water, and a drunk- 
ard both there and on land, this bloated individual was not the 
one to greet a green and awkward boy with soft words. Glad to 
see a new object for his hitherto objectless oaths, he inquired Gar- 
field's business there, in language not well shaped to courtesy nor 
kindness. The offer of his services was made, however, as James 
was not disposed to back out of any thing ; but he was informed 
that they had no use for him, and obliged to retire in confusion, 
amid the continued curses of a magnanimous commander, and the 
profane laughter of an uncouth group of the commanded. 

At this moment of time the reader will pause to reflect and 
consider on what a delicate balance hangs the history of the world, 
and the men who make the world. " Behold, how great a matter 
a little fire kindleth ! " The results of that day's experience at 
Cleveland are written in every public event that ever felt the 
force of Garfield's molding influence. 

Senates owed a name which raised their reputation, armies owed 
their victories to the drunken vulgarity of an Erie captain ! That 
was Garfield's first day in Cleveland. You who know th'e future, 
which has now become the past, think, and compare it with his 
last dav there ! 



THE STRUGGLE OF BOYHOOD.— ON THE CANAL. 37 

Having beat an inglorious retreat from tlie lake, James was 
now forced to confront a new and unexpected difficulty. First, 
he became sensible that his treatment there had probably arisen . 
principally from his rustic appearance ; and the notion came close 
behind that the same scene was liable to be enacted if he should 
try again. He had plenty of pluck, but also a good stock of 
prudence. Go home he would not, at least till he had by some 
means conquered defeat. "What shall I do next?" he muttered 
as he sauntered along. He had already learned, by inquiries in 
town during the day, that work there would be difficult to get. 
In this perplexity, as in every doubtful situation in the world, 
when difficulties are met by determination, a clear way out came 
to him. The problem was solved thus : " I'm going to be a sailor. 
But the ocean is too far away, and I must make my way there by 
lake, meanwhile learning what I can about the business. But I 
can't go on the lake now, — and there's nothing left me but the 
muddy canal. I will go first by way of the canal, meanwhile 
learning what I can about the business." To -the canal he turned 
his tired steps. 

It was the old Ohio and Pennsylvania Canal ; and he found, by 
rare good fortune, a boat ready to start, and in need of a driver. 
The captain of this less ambitious navigating affiiir proved to be . 
not quite so rich in profanity, but more wealthy in good-natured 
sympathy; his name was Amos Letcher, and he was Garfield's 
cousin. To this man James told the story of his experience 
thus far, and asked employment on the boat. The result was a 
contract to drive mules. Letcher became much interested in his 
young friend, and is authority for some good stories about this 
" voyage." 

When the time came to start, the Evening Star was brought up 
to the first lock, and after some delay got through. On the other 
side waited the mule-team and its impatient driver, who was eager 
for the trip to begin. In a few hours he would be farther from 
home than ever in his life before, traveling a path which led he 
knew not whither. Practically, they were bound for Pittsburgh. 
To his imagination, it was a trip arouiul the world. So the whip 



* f 



38 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

was flourished triumphantly, and this circumnavigation committee 
of one was on his way. 

Directly a boat approached from the opposite direction. Jim 
bungled, in his excitement, and got his lines tangled. While he 
stopped to get things straight, the boat came up even with him, 
leaving the tow-line slack for several yards. Eased of their load, 
the mules trotted on quickly to the extent of the line, when, with 
a sudden jerk, the boat caught on a bridge they were passing, and 
team, driver, and all were in the canal. 

The boy, however, was not disconcerted, but climbed out, and, 
amid loud laughter from those on board, proceeded coolly along 
as if it had been a regular morning bath. 

The rough men of the canal were fond of a fight, and always 
ready at fisticuffs. One of the most frequent occasions of these dif- 
ficulties was at the locks, where but one boat could pass at a time. 
When two boats were approaching from opposite directions each 
always tried to get there first, so as to have the right to go through 
before the other. This was a prolific source of trouble. 

As the Evening Star approached lock twenty-one at Akron, one 
of these scenes was threatened. An opposite boat came up just as 
Letcher was about to turn the lock for his own. The other got 
in first. Letcher's men ail sprang out for a fight. Just then Jim 
walked up to the captain and said, " Does the right belong to us ? " 
" No, I guess not ; but we've started in for it, and we are going to 
have it anyhow." " No, sir," said Garfield. " I say we will not 
have it. I will not fight to keep them out of their rights." This 
brought the captain to his senses, and he ordered his men to give 
room for the enemy to pass. 

There was half-mutiny on board that night, and many uncom- 
plimentary remarks about the young driver. He was a coward, 
they said. Was he a coward? Or simply a just, fair-minded 
youth, and as brave as any of them ? He made up his mind to 
show them which he was, when a good time came. 

The captain had defended Jim from these accusations of the 
men, for a reason unknown to them. • The boy had whipped him 
before they came to Akron. It was after a change of teams, and 



K 



2-S 



THE STRUGGLE OF BOYHOOD.— A QUIZZER QUIZZED. 



39 



Jim was on the boat. Loteher was a self-confident young man, 
who had recently been a school teacher in Steuben County, Indi- 
ana, and felt as if all knowledge was his province. He had made 
all his men revere him for his learning, and now was the time to 
overwhelm the new driver. 

So, sitting down near where the lad 
was resting, he said : " Jim, I believe 
you have been to school some, and as 
I have not heard a class lately, I will 
ask you some questions to see where 
you are, if you do n't care." 

James assented . Pedagogue Letcher 
^1' Jl^-- "" thought his time 




OATtFirrn ox tiik tow-t-atk. 



searched out witty inventions; he asked deep questions; he would 
open this youngling's eyes. The examination did not last long, 
for all questions were quickly answered, and the qulzzer ran out 
of materials; his stock of puzzlers was exhausted. 

Then the tables turned. The tailor was out-tailored in three 
minutes, for in that time James had asked him seven questions 
which he could not answer. Hence the captain's allowance for 



i^' 



40 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

the boy's refusal to fight. Letcher knew enough to appreciate the 
reason. 

The Evening Star had a long trip before her, as the present 
load consisted of copper ore consigned to Pittsburgh. Tliis ore 
came down to Cleveland first in schooners from Lake Superior, 
where those great treasuries of ore, which still seem inexhaustible, 
were at that time just beginning to become important interests. 
The habit of the canal-boatmen was to take up the copper at 
Cleveland, carry it to Pittsburgh, and bring back loads of coal. 
Garfield's first experience here must have given him new ideas of 
the growing industries of his country. This constant and immense 
carrying trade between distant places indicated the play of grand 
forces ; these great iron foundries and factories at Pittsburgh be- 
tokened millions of active capital, thousands of skilled workmen, 
and fast-increasing cities abounding in wonders and in Avcalth. 
Whatever the immediate result of Garfield's canal life might have 
been, whether the boatmen had voted him coward or general, one 
fact must have remained — the mental stimulus imparted from these 
things which he had seen. Then must have dawned upon him 
for the first time a sense of the unmeasured possibilities which lay 
before his own country. Tramp, tramp the mules ; lock after lock 
has been left behind, each turn bringing a new landscape, and the 
young driver pushed bravely on, self-reliant, patient, and popular 
with all the men/. For these rough comrades liked him from the 
first as a pleasant fellow, and soon admired him as well. Oppor- 
tunity came to him on the way to prove himself their equal in 
fighting qualities, and more than their equal in generosity. The 
occasion was one the like of which he often knew, where he came 
ofp victor with the odds favoring his enemies. At Beaver, from a 
point where the boats were towed up to Pittsburgh by steam-boat, 
the Evening Star was about to be taken in. As Garfield stood in 
the bow of the boat, a burly Irishman, named Dave Murphy, who 
stood a few feet behind, was accidentally struck by a flying piece 
of rope from the steamer, which had evaded Garfield and gone 
over his head. No harm was done, but Murphy Avas a bully who 
saw here a good chance for a fight. He was thirty-five years old, 



t^- 



THE STEUGGLE OF BOYHOOD.— PUGILISM. 41 

Garfield sixteen. Turning on the boy in a towering rage, he 
aimed a blow with all his strength. But as sometimes occurs to 
men with more brawn than brains, he soon discovered that in this 
case Providence was not "on the side of the heavy battalions." By 
a dexterous motion James eluded his antagonist, at the same instant 
planting a blow behind the fellow's ear which sent him spinning 
into the bottom of the boat. Before the man could recover, his 
young antagonist held him down by the throat. The boatmen 
cheered the boy on ; according to their rules of pugilism, satisfac- 
tion was not complete till a man's features were pounded to a jelly. 
"Give him a full dose, Jim;" "Rah fer Garfield!" The two 
men arise ; Avhat does this mean ? The Murphy face has not been 
disfigured ; the Murphy nose bleeds not ! Slowly the astonished 
men take in a new fact. Generosity has won the day, and brutal- 
ity itself has been vanquished before their eyes. From that hour 
James became one of the heroes of the towpath ; and the day he 
left it was a day of regret to all his new acquaintances there. 

On the way back from Pittsburgh a vacancy occurred on deck ; 
Garfield was promoted to the more responsible position of bow- 
man, jmd the mules found a new master. So the ocean drew one 
step nearer ; this was not exactly the sea, of course, but after all it 
was a little more like sailing. Up and down the narrow course, 
following all its windings, the Evening Star pursued its way with- 
out serious accident, and James Garfield stood at the bow till No- 
vember of 1848. Then came a change. New things were prepar- 
ing for him, and all unknown to him old things were passing 
away. The mother at home still watched for her boy ; the mother 
at home still prayed for her son, and yearned for a fulfillmelit of 
her steadfast desire that he should be such a man as she had beirun 
to dream of him when he was a little child. An accident now 
brought him home to her. The position of bowman on the Even- 
ing Star was rather an unsafe one. The place where James 
stood was narrow and often slippery, and, in a brief period of time, 
he had fallen into the water fourteen times. The last immersion 
chanced in the following manner: One night as the boat ap- 
proached a lock the bowman was hastily awakened, and tu milled 



/ 42 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

out half asleep to attend to his duty. Uncoiling a rope Avhich was 
to assist in steadying the boat through, he lost his balance, and in 
a second found himself in a now familiar place at the bottom of 
the canal. The night was dark, and no help near. Struggling 
about, his hand accidentally clutched a section of the rope which 
had gone over with him. Now, James, pull for your life, hand 
over hand ; fight for yourself, fight for another visit to home and 
mother. Strength began to fail. The rope slid off; swim he could 
not. Jerk, jerk; the rope has caught. Pulling away with a will, 
he climbed back to his place, and found that he had been saved by 
a splinter in a plank in which the rope had caught by a knot. 

Such a narrow escape might well stir up the most lethargic brain 
to new and strange reflections ; but to the active intellect and bright 
imagination of James A. Garfield it brought a profound impression, 
a fresh resolution and a new sphere of action. He saw himself 
rescued by a chance which might have failed him a thousand 
times. Might not this be in answer to a mother's prayer? Was 
it possible that he had been saved for some better fortune than his 
present life promised? He recalled the vague ambitions which 
had at times stirred him for a career of usefulness, such as he knew 
his mother had in mind for him. 

When the boat neared home again, James bade good-bye to the 
Evening Star. Now, farewell visions of the Atlantic; farewell 
swearing captain of the lake; farewell raging canal, for this sailor 
lad is lost to you forever. The romantic element of his character 
indeed was not destroyed, as it never could be ; nor was the glamour 
of the sea quite gone. It Avould take the winter of sickness which 
was before him to remove all nautical aspirations. Arriving be- 
fore the old gate one night while the stars were out in all their 
glory, he softly raised the latch, and walked up to the house. 
Never was happier mother than greeted him at that door. Mrs. 
Garfield felt that her triumph was now at hand ; and set herself to 
secure it at once. 

Four hard months of life on and in the canal had told heavily 
on the young man's constitution. Four months more ague and 
fever held him fast; four months more he longed in vain for the 



-) A 



THE STRUGGLE OF BOYHOOD.— AT GEAUGA. 43 "< 

visior of health. During this dreary time one voice above all 
otiiers comforted, cheered, and swayed his drooping spirits, and 
helped him back to a contented mood. In conversation and in 
sontz:, the mother was his chief entertainer. Indeed, Mrs. Gar- 
field had not only a singing voice of splendid quality, but also 
knew a marvelous number of songs ; and James said, later in life, 
that he believed she could have sung many more songs consecu- 
tively, from memory, than her physical powers would have per- 
mitted. Songs in every kind of humor, — ballads, war songs (es- 
pecially of 1812) and hymns with their sacred melody — these she 
had at command in exhaustless stores. And we may be sure that 
such sweet skill was not without its power on her children. That 
voice had been the dearest music James ever heard in childhood, 
and his ear was well fitted to its every tone ; escape from its power 
was hopeless now if he had even wished it so. 

Meanwhile the past receded, and new plans for the future were 
unfolding. It is interesting to notice how smoothly, and all un- 
known to ourselves, we sometimes pass over the lines which mark 
the periods of our lives. The manner of Garfield's present expe- 
rience was no exception to the rule. 

Samuel D. Bates was a young man, not many years older than 
James A. Garfield. He was a good scholar, and had been attend- 
ing a place called "Geauga Seminary," which had grown up in 
the adjoining county. This winter he had taken the school on 
the Garfield farm, expecting to save some money and return to 
Geauga. With his head full of these ideas, he met Garfield, and 
soon had the latter interested in his plans. When the time came 
for the next term to begin, James was well again, and his mother 
and Bates proposed that he should go also. He thought the subject 
over carefully, but was still uncertain what to do. He was not 
sure of his capacity to turn an education to account, and did not 
wish to spoil a good carpenter for the sake of a bad professor or 
preacher. Before making a final decision, he therefore did a char- 
acteristically sensible thing. Dr. J. P. Robison was a physician 
of Bedford, a man well known for good judgment and skill in his 
profession. One day he was visited by an awkward country lad, 



/. 44 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

who asked a private conversation with him, and, that favor being 
granted, said to him : " My name is James Garfield. My home 
' is at Orange. Hitherto I have acquired only the rudiments of an 
education, and but a scanty knowledge of books. But, at this 
time, I have taken up the notion of getting an education, and, 
before beginning, I want to know what I have to count on. You 
are a physician, and know men well. Examine me, and say plainly 
whether you think I will be able to succeed." 

This frank speech was rewarded by as fair an answer. The phy- 
sician sounded him well, as to both body and mind, and ended with 
an opinion which summed up in about this fashion : " You are well 
fitted to follow your ambition as far as you are pleased to go. 
Your brain is large and good; your physique is adapted to hard 
work. Go ahead, and you are sure to succeed." 

This settled the question at once and forever. Garfield the 
student, the thinker, the teacher, the preacher, and the statesman, 
are all included in this new direction, and time alone is wanting 
to reveal them to himself and to the world. 

Geauga Seminary was situated at a place called Chester, in 
Geauga County, The faculty consisted of three men and as mauy 
women. They were : Daniel Branch and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Cof- 
fin, Mr. Bigelow, and Miss Abigail Curtis. In the second year of 
Garfield's attendance, Mr. and Mrs. Branch retired, and were suc- 
ceeded by Mr. Fowler and Mr. Beach. The students were about 
one hundred in number, and of both sexes. There was a library 
of one hundred and fifty volumes, and a literary society, which 
oifered a chance for practice in writing and speaking. Knowing 
these facts, and that the seminary offered the advantages common 
to many such institutions, we know the circumstances under which 
Garfield began that course of studies which, in seven years, grad- 
uated him with honor from an Eastern college. 

There went with him to Chester two other friends besides 
Bates — one his cousin, William Boynton, the other a lad named 
Orrin H. Judd. These three being all poor boys, they arranged 
to live cheaply. Garfield himself had only seventeen dollars, 
which Thomas and his mother had saved for him to begin on; 



THE STRUGGLE OF BOYHOOD.— LIFE AT CHESTER 45 < 

and he expected to make that go a long way by working at his 
old carpenter trade at odd hours, as well as by economy in spend- 
ing money. So the trio kept " bachelors' hall " in a rough 
shanty, which they fitted up with some articles brought from 
home; and a poor woman near by cooked their meals fi^r some 
jjaltry sum. 

There came a tiijie when even this kind of life was thought 
extravagant. Garfield had read an autobiography of Henry C. 
Wright, who related a tale about supporting life on bread and 
crackers. So they dismissed their French cook, and did the work 
themselves. This did not last long, but it showed them what they 

could do. 

"What tho' on hamely fare we dine, 

Wear hoddin gray, and a' that; 
Gie fools their silks and knaves their wine, 

A man's a man for a' that!" 
Life at college on such a scale as this lacks polish, but may con- 
tain power. The labors which James A. Garfield performed at 
this academy, in the one term, from his arrival on March 6, 
1849, to the end, were probably more than equal to the four 
years' studies of many a college graduate. He never forgot a 
moment the purpose for which he was there. Every recitation 
found his work well done; every meeting of the literary society 
knew his presence and heard his voice. The library was his fa- 
vorite corner of the building. A new world was to be conquered 
in every science, a new country in every language. Thus a year 
passed, and Garfield's first term at Geauga was ended. During 
the summer vacation he was constantly busy ; first he helped his 
brother to build a barn at home, then turned back for a season to 
his old business as a wood-cutter, and then worked in the harvest- 
field. About the latter a good story remains to us. With two 
well-grown, but young, school-fellows, James applied to a farmer 
who needed more hands, asking employment. The farmer thought 
them rather too young for the business; but, as they offered to 
work for "whatever he thought right," he agreed, thinking it 
v.-ould not be much. But they had swung the scythe before, and 
soon made it a warm task for the other men to keep even with 



/• 



46 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

them. The okl man looked on in mute admiration for a while, 
and finally said to the beaten men : " You fellows had better look 
to your laurels; them boys are a beatin' ye all holler." The men, 
thus incited to do their best, worked hard; but they had begun a 
losing battle, and the Garfield crowd kept its advantage. When 
settling time came round, these " boys " were paid men's full 
wages. 

Having, in these ways, saved enough money to begin on, James 
began the fall term at Geauga. Here he still pursued the same 
plan of alternate work and study, inching along the best he could. 
His boarding accommodations were furnished by a family named 
Stiles, for one dollar and six cents a week. The landlady, Mrs. 
Stiles, is made responsible for a story which illustrates how nearly 
penniless James was all this time. He had only one suit of clothes, 
and no underclothing. But toward the end of the term, his well- 
worn pantaloons split at the knee, as he bent over one day, and 
the result was a rent of appalling proportions, which the pin, with 
which he tried to mend matters, failed to conceal. Mrs. Stiles 
kindly undertook to assist him out of his trouble while he was 
asleep that night. But the time soon came when, though still 
poor, Garfield was beyond danger of being put in such straights 
again. For, even before the time came to go home again, he had 
paid his expenses and purchased a few books. One piece of work 
which he did at this time was to plane all the boards for the sid- 
ing of a house, being paid two cents a board. 

About the first of November James applied for an examination, 
and received a certificate of fitness to teach school. One whole 
year was gone since the sea-vision vanished, and his means for 
support in the new life had been made chiefly by the unaided 
force of his own tough muscles. Enough capital of a new kind 
had now accumulated to become productive, and he determined, 
for the future, to make money out of the knowledge in his head, 
as well as out of the strength and skill of his arm. The time for 
opening the country schools was come, and the young man made 
several applications to school trustees near his home, but found 
no place where he was wanted. Returning home discouraged, he 



THE STRUGGLE OF BOYHOOD.— TEACHFiS THE LEDGE. 47 

found that an otfer was waiting for him. He took the eontract 
to teaeh the Ledge school, near by, for twelve dollars a month 
and board. 

This school Avas one of those unfortunate seats of Icarnuuj- so 
often found in rural districts, where teachers are habitually ousted 
each term by the big boy terrible. For James Garfield, not yet 
quite eighteen years old, this would be a trying situation, but we 
already know enough about him to feel confident that he can not 
easily be put down. His difficulties were, however, peculiarly 
great; for, though a prophet, he was in his own country, and the 
scholars were not likely to be forward in showing respect to " Jim 
Gaffil." It was the old story, which many a man who has 
taught country school can parallel in his own experience. First 
came insubordination, then correction, then more fight, followed 
by a signal victory, and at last Master Garfield was master of the 
situation. Then came success, his rcAvard for hard study and 
hard blows. The Ledge prospered, its teacher became popular; 
and, Aviien the time came to close, he did so, satisfied with him- 
self, and possessor of a neat little sum of money. 

Garfield went back to Geauga that year as planned.- Early in 
1851 he had his first ride on a railroad train. Taking passage 
on a train of the Cleveland and Columbus road, then new, he 
went, with his mother, to Columbus. There the representative to 
the legislature from Geauga County, Gamaliel Kent, kindly showed 
him the sights of the capital; from there they went to Zanes- 
ville, and then down the Muskingum, eighteen miles, to visit some 
relatives. There James is said to have taught a short term of 
school before he returned home again ; after this came the renewal 
of school-days at Chester; and so progressing, we may end by say- 
ing that James managed to support himself at Chester for somewhat 
over two years, and to save a little money to begin on when he 
moved a step higher. AVe have been thus minute in relating 
these incidents only because they best show the stuff that was in 
this heroic young fellow, and he can have no better eulogy. 

Now, what were some of the elements of Garfield's mental de- 
velopment at this jxriod/ During the iii'st term he had revived 



48 ' LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

the rusty recollections of his early acquirements, and pursued 
arithmetic, algebra, grammar, and natural philosophy; afterwards 
came more of the regular academic studies, including the rudiments 
of Latin and Greek ; he also studied botany, and collected a good 
herbarium. Every step had been carefully taken, and his mind 
was becoming accustomed to close thinking. Probably his first 
political impressions of importance were at this time being made, 
but we have no record of any opinions formed by him at that time 
on the subjects which then made political affiiirs interesting. 

At the end of the first term in Chester, the literary society gave 
a public entertainment; on that occasion James made a speech, 
w^hich is referred to in the diary he kept at that time, with this 
comment : " I was very much scared, and very glad of a short 
curtain across the platform that hid my shaking legs from the 
audience." Soon afterwards, he took some elocution lessons, which 
is evidence of the fact that he began to think of making some 
figure as a public speaker. 

While Garfield taught the Ledge school another change had 
come to him. The old log school-house on his mother's farm w^as 
used regularly as a church, where a good old man, eloquent and 
earnest in his devotion to religion, ministered to the little congre- 
gation of "Disciples" who assembled to hear him. Recent events, 
and serious thinking, had predisposed James to listen with a will- 
ing ear, and he began to feel drawn back again to the simple faith 
of childhood which had been taught him by his mother. The sect, 
of which his family were all members, were followers of a new 
religious leader. Alexander Campbell is a name fiimiliar to all 
the present generation of older men. At a time of furious dispu- 
tation on religious subjects, Campbell was one of the ablest of 
controversialists. First, a Presbyterian preacher, he had rejected 
the Confession of Faith, and founded a new church, called the 
"Disciples of Christ," whose only written creed was the Bible. 
Gifted with a proselyting spirit, he soon saw his one society spread 
and grow into a multitude, so that soon not Virginia alone, but 
many surrounding States were included in the religious territory 
of the " Disciples," called sometimes the " Campbellitcs." It was 



THE STRUGGLE OF BOYHOOD.— JOINS CHURCH. 49 

one of this man's followers and preachers who now attracted Gar- 
field. Their fundamentals of belief have been summed up thus : 

1. We call ourselves Christians or Disciples. 

2. We believe in God the Father. 

3. We believe that Je.<us is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and 
our only Savior. We regard the divinity of Christ iis the fundamental 
truth in the Christian system. 

4. AVe believe in the Holy Spirit, both as to its agency in conversion 
and as an indweller in the heart of the Christian. 

5. We accept both the Old and New Testament Scrijotures as the 
inspired Word of God. 

G. We believe in the future punishment of the wicked and the future 
reward of the righteous. 

7. We believe that Deity is a prayer-hearing and prayer-answering 
God. 

8. We observe the institution of the Lord's Supper on every Lord's 
Day. To this table it is our practice neither to invite nor debar. We 
say it is the Lord's Supper for all the Lord's children. 

9. We plead for the union of all God's people on the Bible, and the 
Bible alone. 

10. The Bible is our only creed. 

11. We maintain that all the ordinances of the Gospel should be ob- 
served as they were in the days of the Apostles. 

Aside from its adherence to the Bible, this organization did not 
have or profess to have any thing in the way of creed to attract a 
fervid young man to its acceptance. 

Garfield was a man of susceptibility to influences; and peculiarly 
to those of religion. Nature prepared him for it, and his early 
influences led to it. The " wild-oats " had been sown, and the 
'prodigal was ready to return. In March, 1850, he joined the 
Church, and at once became an enthusiastic worker for its in- 
terests. How this new connection came to have a potent in- 
fluence in the shaping and development of his progress, will 
constantly appear as we observe the next few years of his life. 

Garfield was always interested in any cause wdiicli still had its 
place to make in the world; for in that particular it would be 
4 



50 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

like himself. He joined a young church; the first school he went 
to was a new one, as was also the second. He joined the Re- 
publican party before that party had. ever won a national victory. 

In 1851, Garfield thought he had about exhausted the ad- 
vantages of Geauga, and he began to seek " fresh scenes and 
pastures new." We ourselves can not do better than to take 
leave of that secluded spot, summing up our hero's life there in 
tliese his own words : " I remember with great satisfaction the 
work which was done for me at Chester. It marked the most 
decisive change in my life. While there I formed a definite pur- 
pose and plan to complete a college course. It is a great point 
gained, when a young man makes up his mind to devote several 
years to the accomplishment of a definite work. With the educa- 
tional facilities now afforded in our country, no young man, who 
has good health and is master of his own actions, can be excused 
for not obtaining a good education. Poverty is ^very incon- 
venient, but it is a fine spur to activity, and may be made a rich 
blessing." 

Alexander Campbell was not merely a zealous propagandist 
of religious opinions; he was an organizer of religious forces. 
Among these forces, education stands in the first rank. Under- 
standing this fact, Campbell himself fijunded a college at Bethany, 
West A^irginia, — then A'^irginia, — of which he was President until 
he died. Following their leader in this liberal spirit, the Dis- 
ciples had established schools and colleges wherever they were 
able. Hiram, Portage County, Ohio, was a settlement where the 
new sect was numerous, and here, in 1850, was erected the first 
building of what is now Avidely known as Hiram College, but 
was then called the Eclectic Institute. It was toward this place 
that in the foil of that year James A. Garfield turned. A some- 
what advanced course of study was promised, and he resolved to 
go there and prepare for college. Arriving there in time to begin 
with the first classes, he looked about as usual for something to 
do. One evening the trustees were in executive session, when a 
knock was heard at their door. The intruder was admitted. He 
was a tall, muscular young man, scarcely twenty years old, un- 



THE STRUGGLE OF BOYHOOD.— JANITOR AT HIRAM. 51 

polished in appearance, and carrying himself awkwardly, but 
withal in a strikingly straightforward manner. 

" AVell, sir, what i.s your business with us ?" 

In firm, clear tones the answer came: "Gentlemen, I have 
come here from my home in Orange. I have been two years at 
Geauga iScminar}', and am here to continue my work. Being the 
son of a widow, who is poor, I must work my way along ; and I 
ask to be made your janitor." Some hesitation was visible in the 
faces of the trustees, and he added : " Try nie two weeks, and if 
you are not satisfied I will rj[uit." 

The offer Mas accepted, and James A. Garfield again found him- 
self a rich man ; rich in opportunities, rich in health, rich in 
having some way, though a humble one, to support himself 
through another period of magnificent mental growth. His inflex- 
ible rule was to do every thing which fell in his way to do, and do 
all things well. Before the term was far gone, the entire school 
had become interested in him. With a pleasant word for every 
one, always more than willing to do a fiivor, earnest, frank, and a 
ready laugher, nobody could be more popular than Garfield. In a 
short time one of the teachers of Science and English, became ill, 
and Garfield was chosen to fill the temporary vacancy. This 
duty was so faithfully jx^rformed that some of the classes were 
continued to him, and so he was never without from three to six 
classes till he went away to college. As a teacher he was singu- 
larly successful ; the classes never flagged in interest, for the 
teacher was always either drawing forth ideas on the subject in 
hand from some one else, or he was giving his own views in a 
manner which invariably held attention. By these helps, by still 
working as a carpenter in the village, and in various other ways, 
making as much and spending as little as he could, Garfield finally 
left Hiram, free from debt, and possessor of three hundred and 
fifty dollars on which to start into college. 

From the time when he became a member of the church at 
Geauga, Garfield had contiinially increased in devotion to religious 
affairs, and at Hiram quickly became a power. He was constantly 
present at the social prayer-meetings, where his remarks were 



52 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD, 

frequent, and attracted notice. In a short time he was called on 
to address the people, and this becoming a habit, rapidly improved, 
and came to be called "the most eloquent young man in the 
county." For a number of years Garfield was known as a 
first-rate preacher; in regularity of speaking, however, he was 
very much like that order known among Methodists as " local 
preachers." 

That Garfield was at this time beginning to have political con- 
nections, appears from a story told by Father Bentley, then jias- 
tor of the church at Hiram. On one occasion an evening service 
was about to be held, and the pastor had invited our friend to sit 
with him on the platform; also expecting him to address the peo- 
ple. Unnoticed by Father Bentley, a young man called Garfield 
EAvay, and was hastening him off to talk at a political meeting. 
Discovering his departure, Bentley was about to call him back; 
when, suddenly, he stopped, and said : " Well, I suppose we must 
let him go. Very likely he will be President of the United 
States, some day!" 

Garfield's general progress at Hiram was intimately connected 
with that of the people about him; and the best possible view of 
him must come from a knowledge of his friends, and the work 
they did together. In a late address to the Alumni of Hiram, 
Garfield has furnished a good sketch of the kind of human ma- 
terial that made up the " Eclectic Institute." • 

"In 1850 it Avas a green field, with a solid, plain brick building in 
the center of it, and almost all the rest has been done by the institu- 
tion itself. Without a dollar of endowment, without a powerful friend 
anywhere, a corps of teachers were told to go on the ground and see 
what they could make of it, and to find their pay out of the tuitions 
that should be received; Avho invited students of their own spirit to 
come here on the ground and find out by trial what they could make 
of it. The chief response has been their work, and the chief part of 
the response I see in the faces gathered before me to-day. It was a 
simple question of sinking or swimming, and I do not know of any in- 
stitution that has accomplished more, with little means, thnn this school 
on Hiram hill. I know of no place w^here' the doctrine of self help has 



THE STRUGGLE OF BOYHOOD.— POSSIBLE SWEETHEART. 53 

had a fuller developnicut. As I said a great many years ago, the theory 
of Hiram was to throw its young men and women overboard, and let 
them try for themselves. All that were fit to get ashore got there, and 
we had few cases of drowning. Now, when I look over these faces, and 
mark the several geologic ages, 1 find the geologic analogy does not 
hold^there are no fossils. Some are dead and glorified in our memories, 
but those who are alive are alive. I believe there was a stronger press- 
ure of work to the square inch in the boilers that ran this establishment 
than any other I know of. Young men and women — rough, crude and 
untutored farmer boys and girls— came here to try themselves, and find 
out what maimer of people they were. They came here to go on a voy- 
age of discovei-y, to discover themselves, and in many casas I hope the 
«liscovery was fortunate." 

Among these brave toilers were two or three of Garfield's more 
intimate friends, with whom we must become acquainted before 
we can come at a thorough knowledge of Garfield himself. Of 
his introduction to them he has said; 

"A few days after the beginning of the term, I saw a class of three 
reciting in mathematics — geometry, I think. I had never seen a geome- 
try, and, regarding botli teacher and class with a feeling of reverential 
awe for the intellectual height to which they had climber], I studied their 
faces so closely that I seem to see them now as distinctly as I saw tlieni 
then. And it has been my good fortune since that time to claim them 
cdl :is intimate friends. The teacher was Thomas Munnell, and the 
members of his class were William B. Hazen, George A. Baker and 
Almeda A. Booth." 

Afterwards he met hero, for the second time, one who had been 
known to him in Clicstor. Lucrctia Rudolph was a farmer's daugh- 
ter, whose humble home was tlieii not far from Chester. Her 
father was from Maryland; his uncle had been a bravo soldier of 
the Revolution, and, as the story goes, he afterward went to 
France, enlisted under the banner of Napoleon, and was soon 
known to the worhl as IMarshal Ney. Lucretia's mother came 
from Vermont, and her name had boon Arabella Mason. The 
Eudolpli family was poor, but ijidustrious and ambitiims. Their 



54 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

daughter had, therefore, been sent to Geauga. She was a " quiet, 
thoughtful girl, of singularly sweet and refined disposition," and 
a great reader. 

" Her heart was gentle as her face was fair, 
With grace and love and pity dwelling there." 

In the fall of 1849 this young lady was earnestly pursuing her 
studies at Geauga Seminary, and, during the hours of recitation, 
there often sat near her the awkward and bashful youth, Garfield. 
There these two became acquainted; and, although the boy made 
but few advances at first, they soon became good friends. Her sweet, 
attractive ways and sensible demeanor drew his heart out toward 
her; and, as for James, though he may have been very rough in 
appearance, yet his countenance was always a good one, and his 
regularly brilliant leadership of the class in all discussions was 
well adapted to challenge such a maiden's admiration. A back- 
woods idyl, ending in an early marriage, would not be a surpris- 
ing result in such a case as this. But these two souls were too 
earnestly bent on high aims in life to trouble their hearts, or 
bother their heads, with making love. They were merely ac- 
quaintances, although tradition hath it, that from the day when, 
leaving Chester, their paths diverged aNvhile, a corres|X)ndence 
was regularly kept up. However that may be, the fact we know 
is, that at this time and place, James A. Garfield first met Lucre- 
tia Rudolph, the woman who was one day to become his wife. 
In 1852 the Rudolphs moved to Hiram, where the young lady 
studied at the " Eclectic," and recited to Garfield in some of her 
classes. The old friendship here ripened into affection ; they pur- 
sued many studies together, and, about the time he left Hiram for 
college, they were engaged to many. Long after they were mar- 
ried, a poet of Hiram referred to her thus: 

"Affain a Mary ? Nay, Luereiia, 
The nohle, classic name 
That well befits our fair ladie, 
Our sweet and gentle dame, 
"NVith heart as leal and loving 



THE STRUGGLE OF BOYHOOD.— LOOKS AND FEIEND. 55 

As e'er was sung in lays * 

Of high-born Roman matron, 

In old, heroic days; 

AVorthy her lord illustrious, whom 

Honor and fame attend ; 

Worthy her soldier's name to wear, 

Worthy the civic wreath to share 

That hinds her Viking's tawny hair; 

Right proud are we the world shoijld know 

As hers, him we long ago 

Found truest helper, friend." 

Another woman, hovrcver, one of the members of the awe- 
inspiring geometry class named above, had, in the Hiram days, 
more influence on Garfield's intellectual life than any other per- 
son. Miss Almcda A. Booth was a woman of wonderful force of 
mind and character. She was the daughter of New England par- 
ents, who had come to Ohio, where her father traA^eled over an 
immense circuit of country as an itinerant ISIethodist preacher. 
Almeda very early discovered intellectual tastes, and, at twelve, 
read such works as RoUiu's Ancient History and Gibbon's DccUtw 
and Fall oj tfie Roman Empire. She taught her first school at 
seventeen. An engagement of marriage was broken by the death 
of her intended husband, and her life was ever afterward devoted 
to the business of teaching. Thus the quiet current of life was 
not wrecked, but went smoothly on, clear and beautiful. She 
was i>oor in what people call riches; the office of teacher gave 
support. She was sad because death had darkened her life ; study 
was a never-failing solace. Her mind gloried in strength, and 
the opportunity for a career of useful exercise of its jiowcrs helped 
to make her happy. Henceforth she loved loiowledge more than 
ever; and could freely say: 

. "My mind to me a kingdom is. 

Such perfect joy therein I find. 
As far exceeds all earthly bliss 

That God or Nature hath a.ssigned." 

About the same time with Garfield, Miss Booth came to Hiram, 
jind soon found her time, like his, divided between teaching in 



56 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

some classes and reciting in others. Each at once recognized in 
tlic other an intellectual peer, and they soon were pursuing many 
studies together. Our best idea of her comes from an address 
made by Garfield, on a memorial oceaBion, in 1876, the year after 
Miss Booth died. IIo conipared her to Margaret Fuller, the only 
American ^voman whom he thought her equal in ability, in yariety 
of accomplishtiients, or in influence oyer other minds. "It is 
quite possible," says Garfield, "that John Stuart Mill has exag- 
gerated the extent to which his own mind and w<»rks were influ- 
enced by Ha,rriet Mills. I should reject his opinion on that sub- 
ject as a delusion, did I not know from my own experience, as 
well as that of hundreds of Ilinuii students, how great a power 
Miss Booth exercised oyer the cultuz-e and opinions of her friends.'* 
Again : " In mathematics and the physical sciences I was far 
behind her; but we were nearly at the same place in Greek and 
Latin. She had made her home at President Hayden's almost 
from the first, and I became a member of his family at the begin- 
ning of the Winter Term of 1852-'3. Thereafter, for nearly two 
years, she and I studied together in the same classes (frequently 
without other associates) till we had nearly completed the class- 
ical course." In the summer yacation of 1853., with several oth- 
ers, they hired a professor and studied the classics. 

"Miss Booth read thorouglily, and for the first time, the Pastorals 
of Virgil — that is, tlie Georgies and Bucolics entire — and tlie first six 
books of Homer's Iliad, accompanied by a thorough drill in the Latin 
or Greek Gramm.ir at each recitation. I am sure that none of those 
who recited with her wooLl say she was behind the foieraost in the thor- 
oughness of iier work, or the el'\g:uice of her translation. 

"During the Fall Term of 1853, she i-ead one hniKlred pages of He- 
rodotus, and about the same aniount of Livy. During that term also. 
Profs. Dunshee and Hull and Miss Booth and I met, at her room, two 
evenings of each week, to make a joint translation of the Book of Ro- 
mans. Prof. Dunshee contributed his studies of the German commen- 
tators, De Wette and Thohick ; and each of the translators made some 
sjiecial study for each meeting. How nearly we completal the ti-ans- 
lation, I do not remember; but I do remember that tiie contributions 



THE STKUGGLE OF BOYHOOD.— ENTEKS COLLEGE. 57 

and criticisms of i\Iiss Booth were remarkable for siiggestiveness and 
sound judgment. Our work was more thorough tluui rapid, for I find 
this entry in my diary for December 15, 1853: 'Translation Society sat 
three hours at Miss Booth's room, and agreed upon the translation of 
nine verses.' 

" Duriii<r the Winter Term of 1853-4, she continued to read Livv, 
and also read the whole of Demosthenes on the Crown. The members of 
the class in Demosthenes Avere Miss Bootli, A. Hull, C. C. Foot and 
myself. 

" During the ^^[iring Term of 1854, she read the Germania and Agric- 
ola of Tacitus, and a portion of Hesiod." 

These were the occupations, these the friends of James A. 
Garfield at Hiram, when, in the fall of 1854, he found himself 
rcadv for colle<re. He was so far advanced that he would easilv 
be able to graduate in two years. The best institution of ad- 
vanced learning, in the " Disciples' " church, was that of which 
Alexander Campbell was president, at Bethany, Virginia. But 
Garfield, much to the surprise of his Hiram friends, made up his 
mind that he would not go there. The- reasons he gave arc sum- 
med up in a letter written by him at that time, and quoted by 
AVhitelaw Reid in his Ohio in the Witr. This letter shows nut 
only why he did not go to Bethany, but why he did go to Will- 
iams. Pie wrote : 

" Tliere are three reasons why I have decided not to go to Bothain-: 
1st. The course of study is not so extensive or thorough as in Ea-tcrn 
colleges. 2d. Bethany leans too heavily toward slavery, od. I am the 
son of Discij)le parents, am or;e myself, and have had l)ut little acquaint- 
ance with peojjle of other views ; and, having always lived in the AVcst, 
I think it will make me more liberal, both in my religious and general 
views and sentiments, to go into a new circle, Avhere I shall he under 
new influences. These considerations led me to conclude to go to some 
New England college. I therefore wrote to the presidents of Brown 
University, Yale and Williams, setting forth the amount of study 1 had 
done, and askinir how' louu: it would take m(! to finish their course. 

"Their answers are now before me. All tell me I can graduate in 
two years. They arc all brief, business notes, but President Hopkins 



58 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

concludes with this sentence : ' If you come here, Ave shall be glad to do 
what we can for you.' Other things being so near equal, this sentence, 
which seems to be a kind of friendly grasp of the hand, has settled the 
question for me. I shall start for Williams next week." 

The next week he did go to Williams. Boyhood, with its stmg- 
gles, had vanished. Garfield was now a man of tw^enty-three years, 
wuth much development yet before him, for his possibilities of 
growth were very large, and the process never stopped while he 
lived. What he did at Williams let the following pages reveal. 



THE MORNI^^G OF POWER.— COLLEGE LIFK 59 



CHAPTER III. 

THE MORNING OF POWER. 

COLLEGE life, as we have it in this conntn-, is a romance. 
In the midst of an age in whose thought poetry has found 
little lodii-mcnt: in which love has become a matter of business, 
and literature a trade, the American college is the home of senti- 
ment, of ideas and of letters. .The old institutions of romance 
have crumbled into ruins. The armed knight, the amorous lady, 
the wandering minstrel, the mysterious monastery, the mediaeval 
castle, with its ghosts and legends exist only in history. But be- 
hind academic walls there are passages-at-arms as fierce, anionic 
as sweet, songs as stirring, legends as wonderful, secrets as well 
transmitted to posterity as ever existed in the brain of Walter Scott. 

It was to such an enchanted life at Williams College, that Gar- 
field betook himself in the month of June, 1854. To go through 
college is like passing before a great number of photographic cam- 
eras of every size and kind, when the sensitive plate is prepared 
and the focus arranged. A man leaves an indelible picture of 
himself printed on the mind of each student with whom he comes 
in contact; so that the college life of a great man is an impor- 
tant part of his biography. 

When Garfield entered Williams, he was over six feet high, as 
awkward as he was muscular, and looking every inch a backwoods- 
man. He had made great progress, however, in his previous stud- 
ies, and successfully passed his examination for the junior class. 
A young fellow, named Wilbur, a cripple, .came with him from 
Ohio, and the couple from the first attracted much attention. A 
classmate writes: "Garfield's kindness to his lame chum was re- 
marked by every body." 

But manv of the college bovs were the sons of rich men. Tlie 
strapping young fellow from Ohio was, in his own language, a 



^0 

GO LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

"greeny" of the most verdant type. His clothes were homespun, 
and the idea of fitting him seemed never to have entered their 
malver's head. His language was marred by uncouth provincial- 
isms. His face had a kindly and thoughtful expression, on -which 
the struggle of boyhood had left little trace, but this could not 
save him from many a cut. To a coarser-grained man, the petty 
indignities, the sly sarcasms, the cool treatment of the Eastern col- 
legians would not have been annoying, but there are traces of a 
bitter inward anguish in Garfield's heart at this time. To make 
it worse, he had not entered a lower class, where he perhaps might 
have had companions as green as himself, or, at least, comparative 
ol)scurity; but, entering an upper class, from wliose members rus- 
ticity had long since disappeared, he was considered a legitimate 
target for the entire body of students. 

But he had brains, and nowhere in the world, does ability rise 
to the top, and mediocrity sink to the bottom, so surely and swiftly, 
as at college. In a short time, his commanding abilities began to 
assert themselves. In the class-room, he was not only a profound 
and accurate scholar, but his large brain seemed packed with in- 
formation of every sort, and all ready for use at a moment's notice. 
His first summer before the regular fall term lie spent in the col- 
lege libi;ary. Up to that time he had never seen a copy of Shakes- 
peare ; he had never read a novel of Walter Scott, of Dickens, or 
of Thackerav. 

The opportunity was a golden one. On the shelves of the "Wil- 
liams' library were to be found the best books of all the ages. 
Plunging in at once, he read poetry, history, metaphysics, science, 
with hardly a pause fi)r meals. He felt that his poverty had made 
him lose time, and that the loss must be made good. His power- 
ful frame seemed to know no fatigue, and his voracious and devour- 
ing mind no satiety. Weaker minds would have been foundered. 
Xot so with this western giant. Note-book in hand, he jotted 
down memoranda of references, mythologic, historical or literary, 
which he did not fully understand, for separate investigation. The 
ground was carefully gleaned, notwithstanding the terrific speed. 
This outside reading was kept up all through his stay at Williams. 



THE MORXIXG OF POWER.— COLLEGE LIFE. Gl 

Hon. Clcmcut II. Hill, of Boston, a classmate of Garfield, writ- 
ing of his studies and reading, says : " I think at that time he was 
paying great attention to German, and deyoted all his leisure time 
to that language. In his studies, his taste was rather for meta- 
physical and philosophical studies than for history and biography, 
^yhich were the studies most to my liking; but he read besides a 
good deal of poetry and general literature. Tennyson was then, 
and has ever been since, one of his favorite authors, and I remem- 
ber, too, ^vhen Hiawatha ^yas published, how greatly he admired it, 
and how he would quote almost pages of it in our walks together. 
He was also greatly interested in Charles Kingsley's writings, 
particularly in Alton Locke and Yeast. I first, I think, introduced 
him to Dickens, and gave him Oliver Twist to read, and he roared 
with laughter over Mr. Bumble." 

There are but few stories told of Garfield's life at Williams, and 
there is a reason behind the fact. The college " yarn " is gener- 
ally a tradition of some shrewd trick, some insubordination to dis- 
cipline, or some famous practical joke. Every college has a con- 
stantly growing treasury of such legend lore. There are stories 
of robbed hen-roosts, pilfered orchards, and plundered w^atermelon 
patches ; of ice-cream stolen from the back porch just after the 
guests had assembled in the parlor; of mock processions, of bogus 
ncAvspapers, of wedding invitations gotten out by some rascally 
sophomore, for the marriage of some young couple, who were 
barely whispering the thought in their own imaginations. There 
are stories of front doors painted red; of masked mobs rang- 
ing through town on Halloween, and demanding refreshment; 
of the wonderful theft of the college bell, right when a ^vatch- 
man W'ith loaded revolver was in the building, of hairbreadth 
escapes down lightning rods, and of the burning in effigy of un- 
popular professors. There is a story told in nearly every college 
in the country, of how a smart fellow, to revenge himself, sprink- 
led several barrels of salt on the street and sidewalk in front of a 
profes.sor's house ; how he drove all the Avandcring cattle in the 
village to that part of the street, and how no digging, nor sweep- 
ing, nor scalding water, nor flourished broom handles did any good 



62 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

toward driving away the meek but persistent kine, who, with mon- 
otonous bell and monotonous bellow, for months afterward, day 
and night, chose that spot for their parlor. 

But no such legends hung round the name of Garfield at Wil- 
liams College. He was there under great pecuniary pressure, and 
for a high and solemn purpose. He was there for work, not play. 
Every thing which looked like a turning aside from the straight 
and narrow way, was indignantly spurned. At one time he caught 
the fever for playing chess. He was a superior player, and en- 
joyed the game immensely. But when he found it carried him to 
late hours, he denied himself the pleasure entirely. 

But he stepped at once to the front rank as a debater in his lit- 
erary society. His power of statement, his grasp of facts, his quick 
repartee, combined to make him the leading orator of the college. 
His method of preparation showed the mind of a master. The 
subject of debate he would divide into branches, and assign a 
separate topic to each of his allies for investigation, distributing 
each topic according to their respective qualities of mind. Each 
man overhauled the college library, gathering and annotating all 
the facts and authorities upon his particular branch of study, and 
submitted his notes to Garfield, who would then analyze the mass of 
facts, draw up the propositions, which were to bear down like Mace- 
donian phalanxes upon the enemy, and redistribute the branches of 
the question to his debaters for presentation on the rostrum. 

His mind never seemed foggy. Odd scraps of information, 
which ordinary men would have been unable or afraid to use, he 
wielded like a club about his adversaries' heads. In a public de- 
bate in his junior year, the preceeding speaker had used a lengthy 
and somewhat irrelevant illustration from Don Quixote. AMien 
Garfield's turn for reply came, he brought down the house by say- 
ing : " The gentleman is correct in drawing analogies between his 
side of this question and certain passages in the life of Don Quix- 
ote. There is a marked resemblance, which I perceive myself, be- 
tween his argument and the scene of the knight attacking the 
windmill; or, rather, it would be more appopriate to say that he 
resembles the windmill attacking the knightJ' At the college sup- 



THE MORNING OF POWER.— COLLEGE LIFE. 63 

per, which followed the public entertainment, Garfield's extensive 
acquaintance with standard literature was being talked about, when 
he laughingly told his admiring friends that he had never read Don 
Quixote, and had only heard a mention of the tournament between 
tlie crazy knight and the windmill. 

His classmates, in writing of the impressions made on them by 
their college chum, speak much of his warm, social disposition, 
and his fondness for jokes. He had a sweet, large, wholesome 
nature, a hearty and cheerful manner, which endeared him most 
closely to the men among whom he spent the two years of col- 
lege life. By the poorer and younger students he was almost 
worshiped for his kindliness and encouragement. He was a warm 
friend of every boy in the college ; but for the weak, or sick, or 
poverty stricken, his heart overflowed with generous sympathy. 

His morals were as spotless as the stars. A classmate, who 
knew him well, writes : " I never heard an angry word, or a 
hasty expression, or a sentence which needed to be recalled. He 
possessed equanimity of temper, self-possession, and self-control in 
the highest degree. What is more, I never heard a profane or 
improper word, or an indelicate allusion from his lijDS. He was 
in habits, speech, and example, a pure man." 

AVilliamstown, Massachusetts, where the college is located, is 
one of the most beautiful spots on the continent, and its magnifi- 
cent mountain scenery made a deep impression on the mind of the 
tall Ohioan, who had been reared in a level country. It is only 
to people who live among them that mountains are unimpressive, 
and, perhaps, even then they make their impress on the character, 
giving it a religious loftiness and beauty. 

An old institution of Williams College was " Mountain Day " — 
an annual holiday given for expeditions to some picturesque point 
in the vicinity. On one of these occasions, an incident revealed 
the courage and piety of " Old Gar," a.s the boys lovingly called 
their leader. They were on the summit of " Old Greylock," seven 
miles from the college. Although it was midsummer, the mount- 
ain top was cool; and, as the great glowing sun sank behind the 
western range, the air became chilly. The group of collegians 



64 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIEED. 

were gatliered about a camp-fire that, blazed up briskly iu the 
darkening air. Some were sitting, some standing, but all were 
silent. The splendor and solemnity of the scene ; the dark wind- 
ing valley ; the circling range of mountains ; the over-bending sky ; 
the distant villages, with the picturesque old college towers; the 
faint tinkle of the cowbell ; the unspeakable glories of the sunset, — 

"As through the AYest, where sank the crimson day, 
Meek twilight slowly sailed, and waved her banners gray," — 

filled every thoughtful heart with religious awe. Just as the 
silence became oppressive, it was broken by the voice of Garfield : 
" Boys, it is my habit to read a chapter in the Bible every even- 
ing with my absent mother. Shall I read aloud?" The little 
company assented; and, drawing from his pocket a well-worn 
Testament, he read, in soft, rich tones, the chapter which the 
mother in Ohio was reading at the same time, and then called on 
a classmate to kneel on that mountain top and pray. 

The two months' vacation of Garfield's first winter at college 
was spent at North Pownal, Vermont, teaching a writing-school, 
in a school-house vrhere, the winter before, Chester A. Arthur had 
been the regular teacher. But, at that time, Garfield only knew 
his predecessor by name, and the men whose destinies were in the 
future to become so closely intertwined did not become acquainted. 
: At the end of his junior year Garfield's funds were exhausted ; 
but, after a consultation with his mother, he resolved to borrow 
the money to complete his course, rather than lose more time. 
His first arrangement for the money failed; but Dr. J. P. Robi- 
son, of Bedford, who, five years before, had prophesied so much 
of the widow's son, readily assumed the burden, asking no security 
but his debtor's word, but receiving a life insurance policy which 
Garfield, Avho seemed to inherit an apprehension of sudden ca- 
lamity, insisted on procuring. 

At the beginning of his senior year, he was elected one of the 
editors of the Williams Quarterly, the college paper. His asso- 
ciates in the work were W. R. Baxter, Henry E. Knox, E. Clar- 
ence Smith, and John Tatlock. The pages of this magazine were 



THE MORNING OF POWER.— GOLLEGE LIFE. 65 ^ 

enriched by a great number of the products of his pen. His 
originality of thought and pleasant style is nowhere better shown 
than in the following extract from a brilliant article upon Karl 
Theodore Korner : 

"The greater part of our modern literature bears evident marks of 
the haste which characterizes all the movements of this age ; but, in 
reading these older authors, we are impressed with the idea that they 
enjoyed the most comfortable leisure. Many books we can read in a 
railroad car, and feel a harmony between the rushing of the train and 
the haste of the author; but to enjoy the older authors, we need the 
quiet of a winter evening — an easy chair before a cheerful fire, and all 
the equanimity of spirits we can command. Then the genial good nat- 
ure, the rich fullness, the persuasive eloquence of those old masters will 
fall upon us like the warm, glad sunshine, and afford those hours of 
calm contemplation in which the spirit may expand with generous growth, 
and gain deep and comprehensive views. The pages of friendly old 
Goldsmith come to us like a golden autumn day, when every object 
which meets the eye bears all the impress of the completed year, and 
the beauties of an autumnal forest." 

< 

Another article, which attracted great attention at the college, 
was entitled "The Province of History." The argument w^as 
that history has two duties, the one to narrate facts with their 
relations and significance, the other to show the tendency of the 
whole to some great end. His idea was that history is to show 
the unfolding of a great providential plan in the affairs of men 
and nations. In the course of the article he said : 

" For every village, State, and nation there is an aggregate of native 
talent which God has given, and by which, together with His Provi- 
dence, He leads that nation on, and thus leads the world. In the light 
of these truths, we affirm that no man can understand the history of 
any nation, or of the world, who does not recognize in it the power of 
God, and l)eliold His stately goings forth as He walks among the nations. 
It is His hand that is moving the vast superstructure of human history, 

and, though but one of the windows were unfurnished, like that of the 
5 



> 66 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

Arabian palace, yet all the powers of earth could never complete it 
-without the aid of the Divine Architect. 

"To employ another figure— the world's history is a divine poem, of 
which the history of every nation is a canto, and of every man a word. 
Its strains have been pealing along down the centuries, and, though there 
have been mingled the discord of roaring cannon and dying men, yet to 
the Christian philosopher and historian — the humble listener — there has 
been a divine melody running through the song, which speaks of hope 
and halcyon days to come. The record of every orphan's sigh, of every 
widow's prayer, of every noble deed, of every honest heart-throb for the 
right, is swelling that gentle strain; and when, at last, the great end is 
attained — when the lost image of God is restored to the human soul ; 
when the church anthem can be pealed forth without a discordant note, 
then will angels join in the chorus, and all the sons of God again ' shout 
for joy.' " 

This is really an oration. It is not the style of the essayist. 
It is the style of the orator before his audience. The boldness of 
the figure which would captivate an audience, is a little palling 
to the quiet and receptive state of the reader. The mental atti- 
tude of Garfield when he wrote that passage was not that of the 
writer in his study, but of the orator on the platform with a 
hushed assemblage before him. It will be noticed that this char- 
acteristic of style only became more marked with Garfield after 
he had left the mimic arena of the college. 

But the idea embodied in this article is as significant and char- 
acteristic as its expression. In some form or other most of the 
world's great leaders have believed in some outside and controll- 
ing influence, which really shaped and directed events. To this 
they attributed their own fortune. Napoleon called and believed 
himself to be " The Child of Destiny." Mohammed was a fatalist : 

" On two days it stood not to run from thy fate — 

The appointed and the unappointed day ; 
On the first, neither balm nor physician can save, 

Nor thee, on the second, the universe slay.' 

Buddha believed in fatalism. So did Calvin. Julius Csesar 
ascribed his own career to an overweening and super-imposed 



THE MOKNING OF POWEK.— MEMORY. 67 

destiny. William III. of England, thought men were in the 
grasp of an iron fate. 

The idea expressed in this article of a providential plan in hu- 
man things, according to which history unfolds itself, and events 
and men are controlled, is not seen here for the last time. It 
will reappear at intervals throughout the life of the man, always 
maintaining a large ascendancy in his mind. It is not a belief in 
fate, destiny, or predestination, but it is a kindred and correspond- 
ing one. Whether such beliefs are false or true, whether super- 
stitious or religious, does not concern the biographer. It is suffi- 
cient that Garfield had such a belief, and that it was a controlling 
influence in his life. 

But Garfield's literary efforts in college also took the form of po- 
etry. The affectionate nature, and lofty imagination, made his 
heart the home of sentiment, and poetry its proper expression. 
We reproduce entire a poem entitled " Memory," written during 
his senior year. At that time, his intended profession was teach- 
ing, and it is possible that the presidency of a Christian college 
was " the summit where the sunbeams fell," but in the light of 
events the last lines seem almost prophetic. 

MEMORY. 

' Tis beauteous night ; the stars look brightly down 

Vpon the earth, decked in her rol)e of snow, 

No light gleams at the window save my own. 

Which, gives its cheer to midnight and to me. 

And, now, with noiseless step, sweet Memory comes 

And Icada me gently through her twilight realms. 

AVhat poet's tuneful lyre has ever sung, 

Or delicatest pencil e'er portrayed. 

The enchanted, shadowy land where ^lemory dwells? 

It has its valleys, cliecrless, lone, and drear, 

I)ar,k shaded by the mournful cypress tree, 

And yet its sunlit mountain-tops are bathed 

In heaven's own blue. Upon its craggy cliffs, 

Robed in the dreamy light of distant years, 

Are clustered joys serene of other days; 

Upon its gentle, sloping hillside bend 



68 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

The weeping willow o'er the sacred dust 
Of dear departed ones: and yet in that land, 
Where'er our footsteps fall upon the shore, 
They that were sleeping rise from out the dust 
Of death's long, silent years, and 'round us stand, 
As erst they did before the prison tomb 
Received their clay within its voiceless halls. 
The heavens that bend above that land are hung 
With clouds of various hues; some dark and chill, 
Surcharged with sorrow, cast their somber shade 
Upon the sunny, joyous land below ; 
Others are floating through the dreamy air, 
"\^^^ite as falling snow, their margins tinged: 
With gold and crimsoned hues ; their shadows fall 
Upon the flowery meads and sunny slopes. 
Soft as the shadow of an angel's wing. 
When the rough battle of the day is done, 
And evening's peace falls gently on the heart, 
I bound away across the noisy years, 
Unto the utmost verge of Memory's land. 
Where earth and sky in dreamy distance meet: 
And memory dim, with dark oblivion joins ; 
Where woke the first remembered sounds that fell 
Upon the ear in childhood's early morn ; 
And wandering thence, along the rolling years, 
I see the shadow of my former self 
Gliding from childhood up to man's estate. 
The path of youth winds down through many a vale 
And on the brink of many a dread abyss, 
From out whose darkness comes no ray of light, 
Save that a phantom dances o'er the gulf 
And beckons toward the verge. Again the path 
Leads o'er a summit where the sunbeams fall ; 
And thus in light and shade, sunshine and gloom, 
-^ Sorrow and joy, this life-path leads along. 

It is said that every one has in some degree a prophetic instinct ; 
that the spirit of man reaching out into the future apprehends more 
of its destiny than it admits even to itself. If ever this premoni- 
tion finds expression, it is in poetry. On the following page will 
be found a gem, torn from the setting of Garfield's college life, 
which was published during his senior year, and is equally sug- 
gestive : 



MOKNING OF POWER.— AUTUMN. 69 



AUTUMN. 

Old Autumn, thou art here ! Upon the earth 
And in the heavens the signs of death are hung; 
For o'er the earth's brown breast stalks pale decay, 
And 'mong the lowering clouds the wild winds wail, 
And sighing sadly, shout the solemn dirge, , 
O'er Summer's fairest flowers, all faded now. 
The winter god, descending from the skies, 
Has reached the mountain tops, and decked their brows 
"With glittering frosty crowns, and breathed his breath 
Among the trumpet pines, that herald forth 
His coming. 

Before the driving blast 
The mountain oak bows down his hoary head, 
And flings his withered locks to the rough gales 
That fiercely roar among his branches bare, 
Uplifted to the dark, unpitying heavens. 
The skies have put their mourning garments on, 
And hung their funeral drapery on the clouds. 
Dead Nature soon will wear her shroud of snow 
And lie entombed in Winter's icy grave. 
Thus passes life. As heavy age comes on. 
The joys of youth — bright beauties of the Spring — 
Grow dim and faded, and the long dark night 
Of death's chill winter comes. But as the Spring 
Rebuilds the ruined wrecks of Winter's waste, 
And cheers the gloomy earth with joyous light, 
So o'er the tomb the star of hope shall rise 
And usher in an ever-during day. 



There is considerable poetic power here. The picture of the 
mountain oak, with its dead leaves shattered by the November 
blasts, and its bare branches uplifted to the dark unpitying heav- 
ens, is equal to Thomson. This poem, like the one on Memory, 
is full of sympathy with nature, and a somber sense of the sor- 
rowful side of human nature. 

But a college boy's feelings have a long range upward and down- 
ward. Nobody can have the " blues " more intensely, and nobody 
can have more fun. We find several comic poems by Garfield in 
his paper. One of them is a parody on Tennyson's " Light Bri- 



70 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

gade/' and served to embalm forever in the traditions of Williams 
a rascally student prank which the Freshmen played upon their 
Sophomore enemies. One stanza must suffice for these pages. It 
was called " The Charge of the Tight Brigade": 

Bottks to right of them, 
Bottles to left of them, 
Bottles in front of them. 
Fizzled and sundered, 
* Ent'ring with shout and yell, 

Boldly they drank and well, 
They caiifjht the Tartar then ; 
Oh, ivhat a perfect sell! 
Sold — the half hundred. 

Grinned all the dentals bare, 
Swung all their caps in air, 
Uncorking bottles there, 
Watching the Freshmen while 

Every one wondered ; 
Plunged in tobacco-smoke, 
"With many a desperate stroke, 
Dozens of bottles broke. 
Then they came hack, hut not, 

Not the half hundred. 

The winter vacation of his senior year Garfield spent at Poesten- 
kill, a little place a few miles from Troy, New York. While teaching 
his writing school there, he became acquainted with some members 
of the Christian Church and through them with the officers of the 
city schools in Troy. Struck by his abilities, they resolved to 
oflPer him a position in the schools at a salary of $1,500 a year. 
The proposition was exciting to his imagination. It meant much 
more money than he could hope for back in Ohio; it meant the 
swift discharge of his debt, a life in a busy city, where the roar of 
the great world was never hushed. But on the other hand, his 
mother and the friends among whom he had struggled through 
boyhood, were back in Ohio. 

The conflict was severe. At last his decision was made. He 
and a gentleman representing the Troy schools were walking on a 



THE MORNING OF POWER.— POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT. 71 

hill called Mount Olympus, when Garfield settled the matter in 
the following words : 

" You are not Satan, and I am not Jesus, but we are upon the 
mountain, and you have tempted me powerfully. I think I must 
say, ' Get thee behind me.' I am poor, and the salary would soon 
pay my debts and place me in a position of independence; but 
there are two objections. I could not accomplish my resolution 
to complete a college course, and should be crippled intellectually 
for life. Then my roots are all fixed in Ohio, where people know 
me and I know them, and this transplanting might not succeed 
as well in the long run as to go back home and work for smaller 
pay." 

During his two years at Williams, a most important phase of 
Garfield's intellectual development was his "opinion upon questions 
of politics. It will be remembered that in 1855, the volcanic flames 
from the black and horrible crater of slavery began to burst 
through the crust of compromise, which for thirty years had hidden 
the smoldering fires. In Kansas, civil war was raging. Deter- 
mined men from all parts of the country had gone there to help 
capture the State for their side, and in the struggle between the 
two legislatures, the slavery men resolved to drive the Free-soilers 
from the State. The sky was red with burning farm houses. 
The woods were full of corpses of antislavery men with knives 
sticking in their hearts. Yet the brave Free-soilers held their 
ground. One man who had gone there from Ohio, had two sons 
literally chopped to pieces. His name was John Brown. lie also 
remained, living six wrecks in a swamp, in order to live at all. 

The entire country was becoming aroused. Old political parties 
were breaking up, and the lines reformed upon the slavery question. 
Garfield, though twenty -three years old, had never voted. Xora- 
inally he was an antislavery Whig. But he took little interest in 
any party. So far, the struggle of his own life and the study of 
literature had monopolized his mind. 

In the fall of 1855, John Z. Goodrich, a member of Congress 
from the western district of Massachusetts, delivered a political 
address in AVilliamstown. Garfield and a classmate attended the 



72 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

speaking. The subject was the Kfinsas-Nebraska struggle, and the 
efforts of the antislavery minority in Congress to save Kansas for 
freedom. Says the classmate, Mr. Lavallette "Wilson, of New 
York : " As Mr. Goodrich spoke, I sat at Garfield's side, and saw 
him drink in every word. He said, as we passed out, ' This subject 
is entirely new to me. I am going to know all about it.' " 

The following day he sent for documents on the subject. He 
made a profound and careful study of tYie history of slavery, and 
of the heroic resistance to its encroachments. At the end of that 
investigation, his mind was made up. Other questions of the day, 
the dangers from foreign immigration, and from the Roman Catholic 
Church, the Crimean war, the advantage of an elective judiciary, 
were all eagerly debated by him in his society, but the central 
feature of his political creed was opposition to slavery. His views 
were moderate and practical. The type of his mind gave his opin- 
ions a broad conservatism, rather than a theoretical radicalism. 
Accordingly, when on June 17, 1856, the new-born Republican 
party unfurled its young banner of opposition to slavery and 
protection for Kansas, Garfield was ready for the party as the 
party was ready for him. 

It was shortly before his graduation, when news of Fremont's 
nomination came, the light-hearted and enthusiastic collegians held 
a ratification meeting. There were several speakers, but Garfield, 
with his matured convictions, his natural aptitude for political 
debate, and his enthusiastic eloquence, far outshone his friends. 
The speech was received with tremendous applause, and it is most 
unfortunate that no report of it was made. It was natural that 
much should have been expected of this man by the boys of 
Williams. He seemed to be cast in a larger mold than the 
ordinary. The prophecy of the class was a seat in Congress 
within ten years. He reached it in seven. 

At graduation he received the honor of the metaphysical oration, 
one of the highest distinctions awarded to graduates. The subject 
of his address was: "Matter and Spirit; or. The Seen and Unseen.'^ 
One who was present says : 

"The audience were wonderfully impressed with his oratory, 



THE MORNING OF POWER.— GRADUATES AT WILLIAMS. 73 

and at the close there was a wild tumult of applause, and a shower- 
ing down upon him of beautiful bouquets of flowers by the ladies ;" 
a fitting close to the two years of privation, mortification and toil. 

Speaking of his mental characteristics, as developed at Williams, 
Ex-President Hopkins, one of the greatest metaphysicians of the 
age, writes: 

" One point in General Garfield's course of study, worthy of 
remark, was its evenness. There was nothing stiirtling at any one 
time, and no special preference for any one study. There was a 
large general capacity applicable to any subject, and sound sense. 
As he was more mature than most, he naturally had a readier and 
firmer grasp of the higher studies. Hence his appointment to the 
metaphysical oration, then one of the high honors of the class. 
What he did was done with facility, but by honest and avowed 
work. There was no pretense of genius, or alternation of spas- 
modic effort and of rest, but a satisfactory accomplishment in all 
directions of what was undertaken. Hence there was a steady, 
healthful, onward and upward progress." 

To pass over Garfield's college life without mention of the 
influence of President Hopkins upon his intellectual growth, 
would be to omit its most important feature. No man liveth to 
himself alone. The intellectual life of great men is largely deter- 
mined and directed by the few superior minds with which they 
come in contact during formative periods. The biography of 
almost any thinker will show that his intellectual growth was by 
epochs, and that each epoch was marked out and created by the 
influence of some maturer mind. The first person to exercise this 
power is, in most cases, the mother. This was the case with 
Garfield. The second person who left an indelible impression on 
his mental life, and supplied it with new nourishment and 
stimulant, was Miss Almeda Booth. The third person who exer- 
cised an overpowering personal influence upon him was ^lark 
Hopkins. When Garfield came to Williams, his thought was 
strong, but uncultured. The crudities and irregularities of his 
unpolished manners were also present in his mind. 

He had his mental eye-sight, but he saw men as trees walking. 



74 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

But under the influence of Hopkins, the scales fell from his eyes. 
The vast and powerful intellect of the man who was stepping to 
the front rank of the world's thinkers, imparted its wealth of ideas 
to the big Ohioan. Through President Hopkins, Garfield's thought 
rose into the upper sky. Under the inspiration of the teacher's 
lectures and private conversation, the pupil's mind unfolded its 
immense calyx toward the sun of speculative thought. From this 
teacher Garfield derived the great ideas of law, of the regularity 
and system of the Universe, of the analogy between man and nature, 
of God as the First Cause, of the foundation of right conduct, of 
the correlation of forces, of the philosophy of history. In after 
years, Garfield always said that whatever perception he had of gen- 
eral ideas came from this great man. One winter in Washington 
the National Teacher's Association was in session, and Garfield fre- 
quently dropped in to take a share in the discussion. One day he 
said : " You are making a grand mistake in education in this country. 
You put too much money into brick and mortar, and not enough 
into brains. You build palatial school-houses with domes and 
towers ; supply them with every thing beautiful and luxuriant, and 
then put puny men inside. The important thing is not what is 
taught, but the teacher. It is the teacher's personality which is 
the educator. I had rather dwell six months in a tent, with Mark 
Hopkins, and live on bread and water, than to take a six years' 
course in the grandest brick and mortar university on the conti- 
nent." 

With graduation came separation. The favorite walks around 
Williamstown were taken for the last time. The last farewells w^ere 
said, the last grasp of the hand given, and Garfield turned his face 
toward his Ohio home. He was at once elected instructor in the 
ancient languages at the Western Eclectic Institute, later known 
as Hiram College. Two years later he became president of this 
institution, overrun wdth its four hundred pupils. The activities 
of the man during this period were immense. Following his own 
ideas of teaching, he surcharged the institution with his personality. 
The younger student, on entering, felt the busy life which animated 
the place. With his teaching, Garfield kept up an enormous 



A MORNING OF POWER.— COLLEGE PRESIDENT. 75 

amount of outside readino;; he delivered lectures on scientific and 
miscellaneous subjects, making some money by it; he engaged in 
public debates on theologic and scientific questions ; he took the 
stum]) for the Republican party ; on Sundays he preached in the 
Disciples Church; in 1857 he took up the study of the law, mas- 
tered its fundamental principles, and was admitted to practice at 
the Cleveland bar on a certificate of two years' study. Yet with 
all this load on him, he impressed himself on each pupil in Hiram 
College as a personal friend. One of these. Rev. J. L. Darsie, 
gives a vivid picture of Garfield at this time : 

"I recall vividly his method of teaching. He took very kindly to me, 
and assisted me in various ways, because I was poor and was janitor of the 
buildings, and swept them out in the morning and built the fires, as he 
had done only six years l)efore, when he was a pupil at the same school. 
He was full of animal spirits, and he used to run out on the green almost 
every day and play cricket with us. He was a tall, strong man, but 
dreadfully awkward. Every now and then he would get a hit on the nose, 
and he muffed his ball and lost his hat as a regular thing. He was left- 
handed, too, and that made him seem all the clumsier. But he was most 
powerful and very quick, and it was easy for us to understand how it was 
that he had acquired the reputation of whipping all the other mule-drivers 
on the canal, and of making himself the hero of that thoroughfare when 
he followed its tow-path ten years earlier. 

" No matter how old the pupils were, Garfield always called us by our 
first names, and kept himself on the most familiar terms with all. He 
played with us freely, scuffled with us sometimes, walked with us in 
walking to and fro, and we treated him out of the class-room just about 
as we did one another. Yet he was a most strict disciplinarian, and en- 
forced the rules like a martinet. He combined an affectionate and con- 
fiding manner with respect for order in a most successful manner. If he 
wanted to speak to a pupil, either for reproof or approbation, he would 
generally manage to get one arm around him and draw him close up to 
him. He had a peculiar way of shaking hand-;, too, giving a twist to 
your arm and drawing you right up to him. This sympatlietic manner 
has helped him to advancement. When I was janitor he used sometimes 
to stop me and ask my opinion about this and tliat, as if seriously ad- 
vising with me. I can see now that my opinion could not have been of 



76 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

any value, and that he probably asked me partly to increase my self- 
respect, and partly to show me that he felt an interest in me. I certainly 
was his friend all the firmer for it. 

" I remember once asking him what was the best way to pursue a cer- 
tain study, and he said : ' Use several text-books. Get the views of 
different authors as you advance. In that way you can plow a broader 
furrow. I always study in that way.' He tried hard to teach us to 
observe carefully and accurately. He was the keenest observer I ever 
saw. I think he noticed and numbered every button on our coats. 

"Mr. Garfield was very fond of lecturing to the school. He spoke 
two or three times a week, on all manner of topics, generally scientific, 
though sometimes literary or historical. He spoke with great freedom, 
never writing out what he had to say, and I now think that his lectures 
were a rapid compilation of his current reading, and that he threw it 
into this form partly for the purpose of impressing it on his own mind. 

" At the time I was at school at Hiram, Principal Garfield was a great 
reader, not omnivorous, but methodical, and in certain lines. He was 
the most industrious man I ever knew or heard of. At one time he 
delivered lectures on geology, held public debates on spiritualism, 
preached on Sunday, conducted the recitations of five or six classes 
every day, attended to all the financial affliirs of the school, was an active 
member of the legislature, and studied law to he admitted to the bar. 
He has often said that he never could have j)erformed this labor if it had 
not been for the assistance of two gifted and earnest Avomen, — Mrs. Gar- 
field herself, his early schoolmate, who had followed her husband in his 
studies ; and Miss Almeda A. Booth, a member of the faculty. The 
latter was a graduate of Oberliu, and had been a teacher of young Gar- 
field when he was a pupil ; and now that he had returned as head of the 
faculty, she continued to serve him in a sort of motherly way as tutor 
and guide. When Garfield had speeches to make in the legislature or on 
the stump, or lectures to deliver, these two ladies ransacked the library 
by day, and collected facts and marked books for his digestion and use 
in the preparation of the discourses at night." 

In the canvass of 1877, after one of his powerful stump speeches, 
Garfield was lying on the grass, talking to an old friend of these 
Hiram days. Said he : 

" I have taken more solid comfort in the thing itself, and received more 



A MOKNING OF POWER.— COLLEGE PRESIDENT. 77 

moral recompense and stimulus in after-life from capturing young men 
for au education than from any thing else in the world." 

"As I look back over my life thus far," he continued, "I think of 
nothing that so fills me with pleasure as the planning of these sieges, the 
revolving in my mind of plans for scaling the walls of the fortress ; of 
gaining access to the inner soul-life, and at last seeing the besieged party 
won to a fuller appreciation of himself, to a higher conception of life, 
and to the part he is to bear in it. The principal guards which I have 
found it necessary to overcome in gaining these victories are the parents 
or guardians of the young men themselves. I particularly remember 
two such instances of capturing young men from their parents. Both of 
those boys are to-day educators of wide reputation — one president of a 
college, the other high in the ranks of graded school managers. Neither, 
in my opinion, would to-day have been above the commonest walks of 
life unless I or some one else had captured him. There is a period in 
every young man's life when a very small thing will turn him one way or 
the other. He is distrustful of himself, and uncertain as to what he 
should do. His parents are poor, perhaps, and argue that he has more 
education than they ever obtained, and that it is enough. These parents 
are sometimes a little too anxious in regard to what their boys are 
going to do when they get through with their college course. They talk 
to the young men too much, and I have noticed that the boy who will 
make the best man is sometimes most ready to doubt himself. I always 
remember the turning period in my own life, and pity a young man at 
this stage from the bottom of my heart. One of the young men I refer 
to came to me on the closing day of the spring term and bade me good- 
bye at my study. I noticed that he awkwardly lingered after I expected 
him to go, and had turned to my writing again. ' I suppose you will be 
back again in the fall, Henry,' I said, to fill in the vacuum. He did not 
answer, and, turning toward him, I noticed that his eyes were filled with 
tears, and that his countenance was undergoing contortions of pain. 

" He at length managed to stammer out : ' No, I am not coming back 
to Hiram any more. Father says I have got education enough, and 
that he needs me to work on the farm ; that education don't help along 
a farmer any.' 

" ' Is your fixther here?' I asked, almost as much affected by the state- 
ment as the boy himself. He was a peculiarly bright boy — one of those 
strong, awkward, bashful, blonde, large-headed fellows, such as make 



78 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

men. He was not a jirodigy by any means. But he knew what work 
meant, and when he had won a thing by the true endeavor, he knew its 
value. 

" ' Yes, father is here, and is taking my things home for good,' said 
the boy, more affected than ever. 

" ' Well, don't feel badly,' I said. ' Please tell him that Mr. Garfield 
would like to see him at his study before he leaves the village. Don't 
tell him that it is about you, but simply that I want to see him.' In 
the course of half an hour the old gentleman, a robust specimen of a 
Western Reserve Yankee, came into the room, and awkwardly sat down. 
I knew something of the man before, and I thought I knew how to 
begin. I shot right at the bull's-eye immediately. 

"'So you have come up to take Henry home with you, have you?' 
The old gentleman answered: 'Yes.' 'I sent for you because I wanted 
to have a little talk with you about Henry's future. He is coming back 
again in the fall, I hope?' 

" 'Wal, I think not. I don't reckon I can aflford to send him any 
more. He's got eddication enough for a farmer already, and I notice 
that when they git too much they sorter git lazy. Yer eddicated farmers 
are humbugs. Henry 's got so far 'long now that he 'd rother hev his 
head in a book than be workin'. He don't take no interest in the stock, 
nor in the farm improvements. Every body else is dependent in this 
world on the farmer, and I think that we've got too many eddicated 
fellows settin' round now for the farmers to support.' 

" ' I am sorry to hear you talk so,' I said ; ' for really I consider Henry 
one of the brightest and most faithful students I ever had. I have taken 
a very deep interest in him. What I wanted to say to you was, that 
the matter of educating him has largely been a constant out-go thus far; 
but, if he is permitted to come next fall term, he will be far enough 
advanced so that he can teach school in the winter, and begin to help 
himself and you along. He can earn very little on the farm in winter, 
and he can get very good Avages teaching. How does that strike you ? ' 

" The idea was a new and a good one to him. He simply remarked: 
' Do you really think he can teach next winter?' 

" 'I should think so, certainly,' I replied. 'But if he can not do so 
then, he can in a short time, anyhow.' 

" ' Wal, I will think on it. He wants to come back bad enough, and I 
guess I'll have to let him. I never thought of it that way afore.' 



A MORNING OF POWER.— COLLEGE PRESIDENT. 79 

" I knew I was safe. It Avas the financial question that troubled the 
old gentleman, and I knew that would be overcome when Henry got to 
teaching, and could earn his money himself. He would then be so far 
alono-, too, that he could fight his own battles. He came all right the 
next foil; and, after finishing at Hiram, graduated at an Eastern college." 

" The other man I spoke of was a difFei-ent case. I knew that this youth 
was going to leave mainly for financial reasons also, but I understood his 
father well enough to know that the matter must be managed with ex- 
ceeding delicacy. He was a man of very strong religious convictions, 
and I thought he might be approached from that side of his character ; 
so when I got the letter of the son telling me, in the saddest language 
that he could muster, that he could not come back to school any more, 
but must be content to be simply a farmer, much as it was against his 
inclination, I revolved the matter in luy mind, and decided to send an 
appointment to preach in the little country church where the old gentle- 
man attended. I took for a subject the parable of the talents, and, in the 
course of my discourse, dwelt specially upon the fact that children were 
the talents which had been intrusted to parents, and, if these talents were 
not increased and developed, there was a fearful trust neglected. After 
church, I called upon the parents of the boy I was besieging, and I saw. 
that something was weighing upon their minds. At length the subject of 
the discourse was taken up and gone over again, and, in due course, the 
young man himself Avas discussed, and I gave my opinion that he should, 
by all means, be encouraged and assisted in taking a thorough course of 
study. I gave my opinion that there was nothing more important to the 
parent than to do all in his power for the child. The next term the young 
man again appeared upon Hiram Hill, and remained pretty continuously 
till graduation," 

One relic of his famous debates at this time, on the subject of 

Christianity, still exists in a letter written to President Hinsdale, 

which we give : 

"Hiram, January 10, 1859. 

"The Sunday after the debate I spoke in Solon on 'Geology and 
Keligion,' and had an immense audience. Many Spiritualists wore 
out. . . . The reports I hear from the debate are much more de- 
cisive than I expected to hear. I received a letter from Bro. Collins, 
of Chagrin, in which he .says: 'Since the smoke of the battle has par- 
tially cleared away, we begin to see more clearly the victory we liave 



80 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

gained.' I have yet to see the first man who claims that Denton ex- 
plains his position; but they are all jubilant over his attack on the Bible. 
What you suggest ought to be done I am about to undertake. I go there 
next Friday or Saturday evening, and remain over Sunday. I am bound 
to carry the war into Carthage, and pursue that miserable atheism to its 

hole. 

•' Bro. Collins says that a few Christians are quite unsettled because 
Denton said, and I admit, that the world has existed for millions of years. 
I am astonished at the ignorance of the masses on these subjects. Hugh 
Miller has it right when he says that ' the battle of the evidences must 
now be fought on the field of the natural sciences.' " 

In the year preceding the date which this letter bears, the sweet 
romance of his youth reached its fruition, in the marriage of Gar- 
field to Lucretia Kudolph. During the years w^hich of necessity 
elapsed since the first-whispered vows, on the eve of his departure 
to Williams, the loving, girlish heart had been true. They began 
life, " for better for worse," in an humble cottage fronting on the 
waving green of the college campus. In their happy hearts rose 
no picture of another cottage, fronting on the ocean, where, in the 
distant years, what God had joined man was to put asunder. Well 
for them was it that God veiled the future from them. 

But the enormous activities already enumerated of this man did 
not satisfy his unexhausted powers. The political opinions formed 
at college began to bear fruit. In those memorable years just pre- 
ceding the outbreak of the Rebellion — the years " when the grasp- 
ing power of slavery was seizing the virgin territories of the West, 
and dragging them into the den of eternal bondage ; " the years 
of the underground railroad and of the fugitive slave law ; of 
the overseer and the blood-hound ; the years of John Brown's he- 
roic attempt to incite an insurrection of the slaves themselves, such 
as had swept every shackle from San Domingo ; of his mockery 
trial, paralleled only by those of Socrates and Jesus, and of his 
awful martyrdom, — the genius of the man, whose history this is, 
was not asleep. The instincts of resistance to oppression, and of 
sympathy for the oppressed, which he inherited from his daunt- 
less ancestry, began to stir within him. As the times became 



^ 

^ 



THE MORNING OF POWER.— STATE SENATOR. 81 -^- 

more and more stormy, his spirit rose with the emergency, and 
he threw his strength into political speeches. Already looked upon 
as the rising man of his portion of the State, it was natural that 
the people should turn to him for leadership. In 1859, he was 
nominated and elected to the State Senate, as member from Port- 
age and Summit counties. 

The circumstances attending Garfield's first nomination for office 
are worthy to be recounted. It was in 1859, an oif year in poli- 
tics. Portage County was a doubtful battle-field; generally it had 
gone Democratic, but the Republicans had hopes when the ticket 
was fortified with strong names. The convention was held in Au- 
gust, in the town of Ravenna. There was a good deal of beating 
about to find a suitable candidate for State Senator. At length a 
member of the convention arose and said : " Gentlemen, I can 
name a man whose standing, character, ability and industry will 
carry the county. It is President Garfield, of the Hiram school." 
The proposition took with the convention, and Garfield was there- 
upon nominated by acclamation. 

It was doubtful whether he would accept. The leaders of the 
church stoutly opposed his entering into politics. It would ruin 
his character, they said. At Chagrin Falls, at Solon, at Hiram 
and other places where he had occasionally preached in the Dis- 
ciples' meeting-houses, there was alarm at the prospect of the pop- 
ular young professor going off into the vain struggle of worldly 
ambition. In this juncture of affairs, the yearly meeting of the 
Disciples took place in Cuyahoga County, and among other topics 
of discussion, the Garfield matter was much debated. Some re- 
gretted it; others denounced it; a few could not see why he should 
not accept the nomination. " Can not a man," said they, " be a 
gentleman and a politician too?" In the afternoon Garfield him- 
self came into the meeting. Many besought him not to accept 
the nomination. He heard what they had to say. He took counsel 
with a few tru.sted friends, and then made up his mind. " I believe," 
said he, " that I can enter political life and retain my integrity, man- 
hood and religion. I believe that there is vastly more need of manly 
men in politics than of preachers. You know I never deliberately 






82 LIFE OF JAMEvS A. GAEFIELD. 

decided to follow preaching as a life work any more than teaching. 
Circumstances have led me into both callings. The desire of breth- 
ren to have me preach and teach for them, a desire to do good in all 
ways that I could, and to earn, in noble callings, something to pay 
my way through a course of study, and to discharge debts, and 
the discipline and cultivation of mind in preaching and teaching, 
and the exalted topics for investigation in teaching and preaching, 
have led me into both callings. I have never intended to devote 
my life to either, or both ; although lately Providence seemed to 
be hedging my way and crowding me into the ministry. I have 
always intended to be a lawyer, and perhaps to enter political 
life. Such has been my secret ambition ever since I thought of 
such things. I have been reading law for some time. This nom- 
ination opens the way, I believe, for me to enter into the life work I 
have always preferred. I have made up my mind. Mother is at Ja- 
son Robbins'. I will go there and talk with her. She has had a hope 
and desire that I would devote my life to preaching ever since I 
joined the church. My success as a preacher has been a great 
satisfaction to her. She regarded it as the fulfillment of her wishes, 
and has, of late, regarded the matter as settled. If she will give 
her consent, I will accept the nomination." 

He accordingly went to his mother, and received this reply : 
"James, I have had a hope and a desire, ever since you joined the 
church, that you would preach. I have been happy in your suc- 
cess as a preacher, and regarded it as an answer to my prayers. 
Of late, I had regarded the matter as settled. But I do not want 
my wishes to lead you into a life work that you do not prefer to 
all others — much less into the ministry, "unless your heart is in it. 
If you can retain your manhood and religion in political life, and 
believe you can do the most good there, you have my full consent 
and prayers for your success. A mother's prayers and blessing 
will be yours." With this answer as his assurance, he accepted 
the nomination, and placed his foot on the first round in the 
aspiring ladder. 

From this time on, Garfield ceased forever to be a private citizen, 
and must thereafter be looked on as a public man. Twenty-eight year 



THE MORNING OF POWEE.— ORATION AT RAVENNA. 83 X 

of age, a giant in body and mind, of spotless honor and tireless 
industry, it was inevitable that Garfield should become a leader of 
the Ohio Senate. During his first winter in the legislature, his 
powers of debate and his varied knowledge gave him conspic- 
uous rank. A committee report, drawn by his hand, upon the 
Geological Survey of Ohio, is a State document of high order, 
revealing a scientific knowledge and a power to group statistics and 
render them effective, which would be looked at with wide-eyed 
wonder by the modern State legislator. Another report on the 
care of pauper children ; and a third, on the legal regulation of 
weights and measures, presenting a succinct sketch of the attempts 
at the thing, both in Europe and America, are equally notable as 
completely out of the ordinary rut of such papers. During this 
and the following more exciting winter at Columbus, he, somehow, 
found time to gratify his passion for literature, spending many 
evenings in the State library, and carrying out an elaborate sys- 
tem of annotation. But Garfield's chief activities in the Ohio leg- 
islature did not lie in the direction of peace. The times became 
electric. Men felt that a terrible crisis upon the slavery and States- 
rights questions was approaching. The campaign of ISGO, in Avhich 
Abraham Lincoln, the Great Unknown, was put forward as the 
representative of the anti-slavery party, was in progress. In the 
midst of the popular alarm, which was spreading like sheet lightning 
over the Republic, Garfield's faith in the perpetuity of the nation 
was unshaken. His oration at Ravenna, Ohio, on July 4, 1860, 
contains the following passage : 

"Our nation's future — shall it be perpetual? Shall the expanding 
circle of its beneficent influence extend, widening onward to the farthest 
shore of time? Shall its sun rise higher and yet higher, and shine witli 
ever-brightening luster? Or, has it passed the zenith of its glory, and 
left us to sit in the lengthening shadows of its coming niglit? Shall 
power from beyond the sea snatch the proud banner from us? Slictll 
civil dissemion or intestine strife rend the fair fabric of the Union? The 
rulers of the Old World have long and impatiently looked to see fulfilled 
the prophecy of its downfall. Such pliilosophers as Coleridge, Alison 
and j\Iacaulay have, severally, set forth the reasons for this prophecy— 



84 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

the chief of which is, that the element of stability in our Government 
will sooner or later bring upon it certain destruction. This is truly a 
grave charge. But whether instability is an element of destruction or of 
safety, depends wholly upon the sources whence that instability springs. 

" The granite hills are not so changeless and abiding as the restless 
sea. Quiet is no certain pledge of permanence and safety. Trees may 
flourish and flowers may bloom upon the quiet mountain side, while 
silently the ti'ickling rain-drops are filling the deep cavern behind its 
rocky barriers, which, by and by, in a single moment, shall hurl to wild 
ruin its treachei'ous peace. It is true, that in our land there is no such 
outer quiet, no such deceitful repose. Here society is a restless and 
surging sea. The roar of the billows, the dash of the wave, is forever in 
our ears. Even the angry hoarseness of breakers is not unheard. But 
there is an understratum of deep, calm sea, which the breath of the 
wildest tempest can never reach. There is, deep down in the hearts of 
the American people, a strong and abiding love of our country and its 
liberty, which no surface-storms of passion can ever shake. That kind 
of instability which arises from a free movement and interchange of 
position among the members of society, which brings one drop to glisten 
for a time in the crest of the highest wave, and then gives place to another, 
while it goes down to mingle again Avith the millions below ; such insta- 
bility is the surest pledge of permanence. On such instability the 
eternal fixedness of the universe is based. Each planet, in its cii'cling 
orbit, returns to the goal of its departure, and on the balance of these 
wildly-rolling spheres God has planted the broad base of His mighty 
works. So the hope of our national perpetuity rests upon that perfect 
individual freedom, which shall forever keep up the circuit of perpetual 
chano-e. God forbid that the waters of our national life should ever 
settle to the dead level of a waveless calm. It would be the stagnation 
of death — the ocean grave of individual liberty." 

Meanwhile blacker and blacker grew the horizon. Abraham 
Lincoln was elected President, but it brought no comfort to the 
anxious North. Yet, even then, but few men thought of war. 
The winter of 1860-'61 came on, and with it the reassem- 
bling of the State legislatures. Rising wdth the emergency 
Garfield's statesmanship foresaw the black and horrible fate of 
civil war. The following letter by him to his friend, President 



^2 

THE MORNING OF POWER. 85 XC 

Hinsdale, was prophetic of the war, and of the rise of an Unknown 
to "ride upon the storm and direct it": 

Columbus, January 15, 1861. 

" My heart and thoughts are full almost every moment with the terrible 
reality of our country's condition. We have learned so long to look upon 
the convulsions of European states as things wholly impossible here, tliat 
the people are slow in coming to the belief that there may be any break- 
ing up of our institutions, but stern, awful certainty is fastening upon 
the hearts of men. I do not see any way, outside a miracle of God, which 
can avoid civil tear, tvith all its attendant horrors. Peaceable dissolution is 
utterly impossible. Indeed, I can not say that I would wish it possible. 
To make the concessions demanded by the South would be hypocritical 
and sinful ; they would neither be obeyed nor respected. I am inclined 
to believe that the sin of slavery is one of which it may be said tliat 
without the shedding of blood tliere is no remission. All that is left us 
as a State, or say as a company of Northern States, is to arm and 
prepare to defend ourselves and the Federal Government. I believe the 
doom of slavery is drawing near. Let war come, and the slaves will get 
tlie vague notion that it is waged for them, and a magazine will be 
lighted whose explosion will shake the whole fabric of slavery. Even 
if all this happen, I can not yet abandon the belief that one government 
will rule this continent, and its people be one people. 

"Meantime, what will be the influence of the times on individuals? 
Your question is very interesting and suggestive. The doubt that hangs 
over the whole issue bears touching also It may be the duty of our 
young men to join the army, or they may be drafted without their own 
consent. If neither of these things happen, there Avill be a period when 
old men and young will be electrified hy the spirit of the times, and one 
result will be to make every individuality more marked, and their 
opinions more decisive. I believe the times will be even more favorable 
than calm ones for the formation of strong will and forcible characters. 

5tC * ^ * * * * * 

"Just at this time (have you observed the fact?) we have no man 
who has power to ride upon the storm and direct it. The hour has come, 
but not the man. The crisis will make many such. But I do not love to 
speculate on so painful a theme. I am chosen to respond to a toast on 
the Union at the State Printers' Festival here next Thui-sday evening. 
It is a sad and difficult theme at this time." 



86 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

This letter is the key to Garfield's record in the Ohio Senate. 
On the 24th of January he championed a bill to raise and equip 
6,000 State militia. The timid, conservative and politically blind 
members of the legislature he worked with both day and night, 
both on and off the floor of the Senate, to prepare them for the 
crisis which his genius foresaw. But as his prophetic vi.sion leaped 
from peak to peak of the mountain difficulties of the future, he 
saw not only armies in front, but traitors in the rear. He drew up 
and put through to its passage a bill defining treason — " providing 
that when Ohio's soldiers go forth to maintain the Union, there 
shall be no treacherous fire in the rear." 

In the hour of darkness his trumpet gave no uncertain sound. 
He was for coercion, without delay or doubt. 

He was the leader of what was known as the " Radical Trium- 
virate," composed of J. D. Cox, James Monroe, and himself— the 
three men who, by their exhaustless efforts, wheeled Oliio into 
line for the war. The Ohio legislature was as blind as a bat. 
Two days after Sumter had been fired on, the Ohio Senate, over the 
desperate ])rofeMs of the man who had for months foreseen the v:ar, 
passed the Corwin Constitutional Amendment, providing that Con- 
gress should have no poicer ever to legislate on the question of slavery ! 
Notwithstanding this blindness, through the indomitable zeal of 
Garfield and his colleagues, Ohio was the first State in the North 
to reach a war footing. When Lincoln's call for 75,000 men 
reached the legislature, Senator Garfield was on his feet instantly, 
moving, amid tumultuous cheers, that 20,000 men and $3,000,000 
be voted as Ohio's quota. In this ordeal, the militia formerly 
organized proved a valuable help. 

The inner history of this time will probably never be fully writ- 
ten. Almost every Northern legislative hall, particularly in 
border States, was the scene of a coup d'etat. Without law or 
precedent, a few determined men broke down the obstacles with 
which treason hedged the path of patriotism. As we have said, 
the inner history of those high and gallant services, of the midnight 
counsels, the forced loans, the unauthorized proclamations, will 
never be written. All that will be known to history will be that, 



v^<^ 



THE MORNING OF POWER.— CIVIL AVAR. 87 

when the storm of treason broke, every Northern State wheeled 
into line of battle ; and it is enough. 

Of Garheld it is known that he became at once Governor Dcn- 
nison's valued adviser and aid. The story of one of his services 
to the Union has leaked out. After the attack on Sumter, the 
State capital was thronged with men ready to go to war, but there 
were no guns. Soldiers without guns were a mockery. In this 
extremity it was found out that at the Illinois arsenal was a 
large quantity of muskets. Instantly, Garfield started to Illinois 
Avith a requisition. By swift diplomacy he secured and shipped 
to Columbus five thousand stand of arms, a prize valued at the 
time more than so many recruits. But while the interior history 
of the times will never be fully known, the exterior scenes are 
still fresh in memory. The opening of the muster-rolls, the inces- 
sant music of martial bands, the waving of banners, the shouts of 
the drill-sergeant, the departure of crowded trains carrying the 
brave and true to awful fields of blood and glory, — all this we 
know and remember. The Civil War was upon us, and James 
A. Garfield, in the morning of his power, was to become a soldier 
of the CTnion. 



r 

1 88 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



CHAPTER IV. 

A SOLDIER OF THE UNION. 

HONOR to the West Point soldier! War is his business, 
and, wicked though wars be, the warrior shall still receive 
his honor due. By his study, by the devotiqn of his life to rugged 
discipline, the professional soldier preserves war as a science, so 
that armies may not be rabbles, but organizations. He divests 
himself of the full freedom of a citizen, and puts himself under 
orders for all time. Think of the experiences a man must go 
through before he can be a major-general in the regular line of 
military promotion ! 

One of our ablest leaders in the Civil War was General George 
H. Thomas. Of Thomas we learn, from an address of Garfield, 
that " in the army he never leaped a grade, either in rank or com- 
mand. He did not command a company until after long service 
as a lieutenant. He commanded a regiment only at the end of 
many years of company and garrison duty. He did not command 
a brigade until after he had commanded his regiment three years 
on the Indian frontier. He did not command a division until after 
he had mustered in, organized, disciplined, and commanded a 
brigade. He did not command a corps until he had led his di- 
vision in battle, and through many hundred miles of hostile 
country. He did not command the army until, in battle, at the 
head of his corps, he had saved it from ruin." This is appren- 
ticeship with all its hardships, but with all its benefits. 

In our popular praises of the wonders performed by the great 
armies of citizens which sprang up in a few days, let it never be 
forgotten that the regular army, with its discipline, was the " little 
leaven " which spread its martial virtues through the entire forces ; 
that the West Point soldier was the man whose skill organized 



A SOLDIER OF THE UNION.— THE VOLUNTEER. 



89 



these grand armies, and made it possible for them to gain their 
victories. 

Honor to the volunteer soldier ! He is history's greatest hero. 
What kind of apprenticeship for war has he served? To learn 
this, let us go back to the peaceful time of 1860, when the grim- 
vis a g e d m o n- 
ster's " wrinkled 
front " was yet 
smooth. Now, 
look through 
the great iron- 
working district 
of Pennsylvania, 
with its miles of 
red-mouthed fur- 



naces, its thou- 




sand kinds of 
manufactures, 
and its ten thou- 
sands of skilled 
workmen. Num- 
ber the civil engi- 
neers ; count the 
miners ; go into 
the various 
}) laces where 
crude metals and 
other materials 

are worked up into every shape known, to meet the necessities of 
the modern arts. These are the sources of military power. Here 
are the men who will build bridges, and equip railroads for army 
transportation, almost in the twinkling of an eye. Cast your 
mind's eye back into all the corners of the land, obscure or con- 
spicuous, and in every place you shall see soldiers being trained. 
They are not yet in line, and it does not look like a military array; 
the farmer at his plow, the scholar and the professional man at 



GENERAL GEORGE H. THOMAS. 



Hf 



i 90 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

the desk, are all getting ready to be soldiers. No nation is better 
prepared for war than one which has been at peace ; for war is a 
consumer of arts, of life, of physical resources. And we had a 
reserve of those very things accumulating, as we still have all the 
time. 

Europe, with its standing armies, stores gunpowder in guarded 
magazines. America has the secret of gunpowder, and uses the 
saltpeter and other elements for civil purposes; believing that 
there is more explosive power in knowing how to make an ounce 
of powder than there is in the actual ownership of a thousand 
tons of the very stuff itself. The Federal army had not gone 
through years of discipline in camp, but it was no motley crowd. 
Its units were not machines; they were better than machines; they 
were men. 

James A. Garfield became a volunteer, a citizen soldier. The 
manner of his going into the army was as strikingly characteristic 
of him as any act of his life. In a letter written from Cleveland, 
on June 14, 1861, to his life-long friend, B. A. Hinsdale, he said: 

"The Lientenant-Colonelcy of the Twenty-fourth Regiment has been 
tendered to me, and the Goveruor urges me to accept. I am greatly 
perplexed on the question of duty. I shall decide by Monday next." 

But he did not then go. For such a man, capable of so many 
things, duty had many calls, in so many different directions, that 
he could not easily decide. How Garfield was afiected by the 
temptation to go at once may be seen in a letter of July 12, 1861, 
written from Hiram, to Hinsdale, wherein he says : " I hardly 
knew myself, till the trial came, how much of a struggle it would 
cost me to give up going into the army. I found I had so fully 
interested myself in the war that I hardly felt it possible for me 
not to be a part of the movement. But there were so many who 
could fill the office tendered to me, and would covet the place, 
more than could do my work here, perhaps, that I could not but 
feel it would be to some extent a reckless disregard of the good 
of others to accept. If there had been a scarcity of volunteers I 
should have accepted. The time may yet come when I shall feel 



A SOLDIER OF THE UNION.— RAISING TROOPS. 91 

it right and necessary to go ; but I thought, on the whole, tliat 
time had not yet come." 

But the time was at liand. Garfiekl had become known and appre- 
ciated, and he was wanted. On July 27, Governor Dennison wrote 
to him : " I am organizing some new regiments. Can you ta,ke a 
lieutenant-colonelcy ? I am anxious you should do so. Reply by 
telegraph." Garfield was not at home when this letter was sent, but 
found it waiting for him on his return, August 7. That night was 
passed in solemn thought and prayer ; face to face with his country'.? 
call, this man began to realize as he had not before done, what 
"sroins: to war" meant. He began to consider the sacrifi.ee which 
must be made, and found that in his case there was more to give 
up than with most men. How many thousands of volunteers have 
thought the same ! Garfield's prospects in life were very fine in 
the line of work for which he had prepared himself. He was a 
fine scholar, and on the road to distinguished success. jNIoreover, 
he had a dearly loved wife and a little child, his soul's idol. Who 
would provide for them after the war if he should fall victim to a 
Southern bullet? He had only three thousand dollars to leave 
them. After all, Avilling as he was, it was no easy thing to do. 
So it took a night of hard study ; a night of prayer, a night of 
Bible reading, a night of struggle with the awful call to arms; but 
when the morning dawned, a great crisis had pa.s.sed, and a final 
decision had been made. The letter of Governor Dennison was 
answered that he would accept a lieutenant-colonelcy, provided the 
colonel of the regiment was a West Point graduate. The condition 
was complied with already. On the IGth of August, Garfield re- 
ported for duty, and received his commission. His first order was 
to "report in per.son to Brigadier-General Hill, f)r such duty as he 
may assign to you in connection with a temporary command for pur- 
poses of instruction in camp-duty and discipline." In pursuance of 
these instructions he went immediately to Hill's head-quarters at 
Camp Chase, near Columbus. Here he staid during the next fi>ur 
months, studying the art of war; being absent only at short periods 
when in the recruiting service. In the business of raising trooj).s 
he was very successful. The Forty-second O. A\ I. was about 



92 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

to be organized, and Garfield raised tlie first company. It was in 
this wise: Late in August lie returned to Hiram and announced 
that at a certain time he would speak on the subject of the war and 
its needs, especially of men. A full house greeted him at the ap- 
pointed hour. He made an eloquent appeal, at the close of which 
a liu'ge enrollment took place, including sixty Hiram students. In 
a few days the company was full, and he took them to Camp Chase, 
where they were named Company A, and assigned to the right of 
the still unformed regiment. On September 5th, Garfield was made 
Colonel, and pushed forward the work, so that in November the 
requisite number w^as secured. 

MeanwMle the work of study and discipline was carried on at 
Camp Chase with even more than Garfield's customary zeal. The 
new Colonel was not an unwilling citizen in a soldier's uniform. 
He had been transformed through and through into a military man. 
He himself shall tell the story : 

"I have had a curious interest in watching the process in my own mind, 
by which the fabric of my life is being demolished and reconstructed, to 
meet the new' condition of affairs. One by one my old plans and aims, 
modes of thought and feeling, are found to be inconsistent with present 
duty, and are set aside to give place to the new structure of military life. 
It is not without a regret, almost tearful at times, that I look upon the 
ruins. But if, as the result of the broken plans and shattered individual 
lives of thousands of American citizens, we can see on the ruins of our 
old national errors a new and enduring fabric arise, based on larger free- 
dom and highei- justice, it will be a small sacrifice indeed. For myself I 
am contented with such a prospect, and, regarding my life as given to 
the country, am only anxious to make as much of it as possible before 
the mortgage upon it is foreclosed." 

During the fall of 1861, Colonel Garfield had to perform three 
duties. First, to learn the tactics and study the books on military 
affairs; second, to initiate his officers into the like mysteries, and 
see that they became well informed ; and, finally, to so discipline and 
drill the whole regiment that they would be ready at an early day 
to go to the front. In pursuance of these objects he devoted to 
their accomplishment his entire time. At night, when alone, he 



A SOLDIER OF THE UNION.— JOINS GEN. BUELL. 93 

studied, pro})iil)ly even harder than he had ever done as a boy at 
Hiram, For there he had studied with a purpose in view, but 
remote; here the end was near, and knowledge was power in deed 
as well as word. Every-day recitations were held of the officers, 
and this college President in a few weeks graduated a well- 
trained military class. The Forty-second Rcij-iment itself, thus 
well-officered, and composed of young men of intelligence, the 
very flower of the Western Reserve, was drilled several hours 
every day with the most careful attention. Every thing was done 
promptly, all things were in order, f )r the Colonel had his eye on 
each man, and the Colonel knew the equipments and condition of 
his regiment better than any other man. After all, great events 
generally have visibly adequate causes; and wIumi we see Garfield's 
men win a victory the first time they see the enemy, we shall not 
be surprised, for we can not think how it could be otherwise. 

On December loth an order came which indicated that the 
Forty-second was wanted in Kentucky, General Buell was Com- 
mander of the Department of the Ohi(i, His head-quarters were 
at Louisville, At nine o'clock on the evening of the l(3th 
they reached Cincinnati. From this point, in compliance with 
new orders received, the regiment was sent on. down the Ohio to Cat- 
lettsburg, where a few hundred Union troops were gathered already ; 
and Garfield himself went to Louisville to learn the nature of the 
work he had before him. Arriving on the evening of the 16th, 
he reported to his superior at once. 

Don Carlos Buell wa^ at this time forty -three years of age; a 
man accomplished in military science and experienced in Mar. 
He had first learned the theory of his business at West Point, 
where he had graduated in 1842; and besides other service to his 
country he had distinguished himself in the war with Mexico, 
What a contrast to Garfield ! The latter was only thirty years of 
age, and just five years out of college. The only knowledge he 
possessed to prepare him for carrying out the still unknown duty, 
had been gathered out of books; which, by the way, arc not equal 
to West Point nor to a Mar for learning how to fight, Nom' M'hat 
could be the enterprise in Mhich the untried Forty-second should 



94 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIEI.D. 

bear a part? And who is the old head, the battle-scarred liero, 
to lead the expedition? We shall see. 

Taking a map of Kentucky, Buell briefly showed Garfield a 
problem, and told him to solve it. In a word, the question was, 
how shall the Confederate forces be chased out of Kentucky? 
The rebels badly needed Kentucky; so did the Union. Having 
shown Garfield what the business was, Buell told him to go to his 
quarters for the night, and at nine o'clock next morning be ready 
to submit his plan for a campaign. Garfield immediately shut 
himself up in a room, with no company but a map of Kentucky. 
The situation was as follows : Humphrey Marshall, with several 
thousand Confederate troojjs, was rapidly taking possession of east- 
ern Kentucky, Entering from Virginia, through Pound Gap, he 
had quickly crossed Pike County into Floyd, where he had forti- 
fied himself, somewhere not far from Prestonburg, and was prepar- 
ing to increase his force and advance farther. His present situa- 
tion was at the head of the Big Sandy River. Catlettsburg, where 
the Forty-second had gone, is at the mouth of this river. 

Also, on the southern border, an invasion from Tennessee was 
being made by a body of the Confederates, under Zollicoffer. 
These were advancing toward jNIill Spring, and the intention was 
that Zollicoifer and Marshall should join their forces, and so in- 
crease the rebel influence in the State that secession would immedi- 
ately follow. For Kentucky had refused to secede, and this inva- 
sion of her soil was a violation of that very cause of State's Rights 
for which they were fighting. 

Garfield studied this subject with tireless attention, and when 
day dawned he was also beginning to see daylight. At nine o'clock 
he reported. The plan he recommended was, in substance, that a 
regiment be left, first, some distance in the interior, say at Paris or 
Lexington, this mainly for effect on the people of that section. 
The next thing was to proceed up the Big Sandy River against 
Marshall, and run him back into Virginia; after which it would be 
in order to move westward, and, in conjunction with other forces, 
keep the State from filling into hostile hands. Meanwhile, Zolli- 
coffer would have to be taken off by a separate expedition. 



A SOLDIER OF THE UNION.— ACTIVE SERVICE. 95 

Buell stood beside his young Colonel and listened. He glanced 
at the outline of the proposed campaign and saw that it was wisely 
planned. Aa a result — for Buell did nothing hastily — Colonel Gar- 
field was told that his instructions would be prepared soon, and 
he might call at six that evening. That evening he came, and 
learned the contents of Order No. 35, Army of the Ohio, which 
organized the Eighteenth Brigade, under the command of James 
A. Garfield, Colonel of the Fortv -second O. V. I. The bri2;ade 
itself was made up of the last-named regiment, the Fortieth 
O. V. I., Colonel J. Cranor; Fourteenth K. V. I., Colonel L. D. F. 
Moore; Twenty-second K. V. I., Colonel D. AV. Landsay, and 
eight companies of cavalry. 

Buell's instructions were contained in the folloM'ing letter: 

" Headquarters Department of the Ohio, Louisville, Ky., Dec. 17, 18GL 

" Sir: The brigade organized under your command is intended to op- 
erate against the rebel force thi'eatening, and, indeed, actually commit- 
ting depredations in Kentucky, through the valley of the Big Sandy. 
The actual force of the enemy, from the best information I can gather, 
does not probably exceed two thousand, or twenty-five hinidred, though 
rumors place it as liigh as seven thousand. I can better ascertain the 
true state of the case when you get on the ground. 

" You are apprised of the condition of the trooj)s under youp command. 
Go first to Lexington and Paris, and place the Fortieth Ohio Regiment 
in such a position as will best give a moral support to the people in the 
counties on the route to Prestonburg and Piketoii, nnd ojipose any 
further advance of the enemy on the route. Then proceed with the least 
possible delay to the mouth of the Sandy, and move Avith the force in 
that vicinity up that river and drive the enemy back or cut him off. 
Having done that, Piketon will pr()bal)ly l)e in the best ])osition for you to 
occupy to guard against future incursions. Artillery will be of little, if 
any, service to you in that country. If the enemy have any it will in- 
cumber and weaken rather than strengthen them. 

"Your supplies must mainly be taken up the river, and it ought to be 
done as soon as possible, while navigation is open. Purchase what you 
can in the country through' which you operate. Send your requisitions 
to these head-quarters for funds and ordnance stores, and to the quarter- 
masters and commissary at Cincinnati for other supplies. 



96 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

"The conversation I have had with you will suggest more details than 
can be given here. Report frequently on all matters concerning your 
command. Very i-espectfully, your obedient servant, 

"D. C. BUELL, 

"Brigadier-General commanding." 

On receipt of these instructions, Garfield began instantly to carry 
them ont. He telegraphed his forces at Catlettsburg to advance 
up the Big Sandy towards Paintville, Marshall's advance post. 
This he did that no delay should be occasioned by his absence. 
He then visited Colonel Cranor's regiment, and saw it well estab- 
lished at Paris. Returning thence, he proceeded to hasten after 
his own regiment, and reached Catlettsburg on the 20th of De- 
cember. Here he stopped to forward supplies up the river to 
Louisa, an old half-decayed village of the Southern kind, where he 
learned that his men were waiting for him. 

It was on this march from Catlettsburg to Louisa that the For- 
ty-second Ohio began, for the first time, that process of seasoning 
which soon made veterans out of raw civilians. The hardships of 
that march were not such as an old soldier would think terrible; 
b"ut for men who but five days before had left Columbus without 
any experience whatever, it was very rough. On the morning of the 
eighteenth the first division started, twenty-five mounted on 
horses, and one hundred going by boat. The cavalry got on very 
well ; but the river was quite low, and after a few miles of bump- 
ing along, the old boat finally stuck fast. Leaving this wrecked 
concern, the men started to tramp it overland. The country was 
exceedingly wild ; the paths narrow, leading up hill and down 
hill with monotonous regularity. That night when the tired fel- 
lows stopped to rest, they had advanced only eight miles. The 
next day, how^ever, they reached Louisa, where the mounted com- 
pany had taken possession and prepared to stay ; meanwdiile the 
remaining companies were on the road. Rain set in ; the north 
wind blew, and soon it was very cold. The steep, rocky paths 
scarcely afforded room for the wagon-train, w^hose conveyances were 
lightened of their loads by throwing off many articles of comfort 
which these soldiers, with their unwarlike notions of life, hated 



A SOLDIER OF THE UNION.— ADVANCE ON PAINTVILLE. 97 

to lose. But advance they must, if only with knapsacks and 
muskets ; and on the twenty-first all were together again. About 
this time Garfield arrived. 

Paintville, where it was intended to attack Marshall, is on 
Painter Creek, near the west fi^rk of the Big Sandy, about thirty 
miles above Louisa. The first thing to be done, therefore, was to 
cross that intervening space, very quickly, and attack the enemy 
without delay. A slow campaign would result in disaster. While 
this advance was being made, it would also be necessary to see 
to the matter of reenforcements ; for Marshall had thirty-five hun- 
dred, Garfield not half as many. The only possible chance would 
be to communicate an order to the Fortieth Ohio, under Colonel 
Cranor, at Paris, one hundred miles away; that hundred miles 
was accessible to Marshall, and full of rebel sympathizers. The 
man who carried a dispatch to Cranor from Garfield, would carry 
his life in his hand, with a liberal chance of losing it. To find 
such an one, both able and willing for the task, would be like 
stumbling over a diamond in an Illinois corn-field. In his per- 
plexity, Garfield went to Colonel Moore, of the Fourteenth Kcn- 
tuckv, and said to him: "I must communicate with Cranor; some 
of your men know this section of country well ; have you a man 
we can fully trust for such a duty?" The Colonel knew such 
a man, and promised to send him to head-quarters. Directly the 
man ap})eared. He was a native of that district, coming from 
the head of the Bainc, a creek near Louisa, and his name was 
John Jordan. What kind of a man he was has been well told by 
a writer in the Atlantic Monthly for October, 1865: 

" He was a tall, gaunt, sallow man of about thirty, with small gray 
eyes, a fine falsetto voice, pitched in the minor key, and his speech was 
the rude dialect of the mountains. His face had as many expressions as 
could be found in a regiment, and he seemed a stn;nge combination of 
cunning, simplicity, undaunted courage, and undoubting faith ; yet, 
though he might pass for a simpleton, he had a rude sort of wisdom, 
which, cultivated, might have given his name to history. 

"The young Colonel sounded him thoroughly, for the fate of the little 
army might depend on his fidelity. The man's soul was as clear as 
7 



98 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

crystal, and in ten minutes Garfield saw through it. His history is 
stereotyped in that region. Born among the hills, where the crops are 
stones, and sheep's noses are sharpened before they can nibble the thin 
grass between them, his life had been one of the hardest toil and priva- 
tion. He knew nothing but what Nature, the Bible, the Course of Time, 
and two or three of Shakespeare's plays had taught him ; but, somehow, 
in the mountain air he had grown up to be a man — a man, as civilized 
nations account manhood. 

" ' Why did you come into the war?' at last asked the Colonel. 

" 'To do my sheer fur the kentry, Gin'ral,' answered the man. 'And 
I didn't druv no barg'in wi' th' Lord. I guv him my life squar' out ; and 
ef he's a mind ter tack it on this tramp, why, it's a his'n ; I've nothin' 
ter say agin it.' 

" 'You mean that you've come into the war not expecting to get out 

of it?' 

"'That's so, Gin'ral.' 

" ' Will you die rather than let the dispatch be taken ?' 

'"I will.' 

" The Colonel recalled what had passed in his own mind when poring 
over his mother's Bible that night at his home in Ohio, and it decided 
him. ' Very well,' he said ; ' I will trust you.'" 

Armed with a carbine and a brace of revolvers, Jordan mounted 
the swiftest horse in the regiment, and was off at midnight. The 
dispatch was written on tissue paper, then folded closely into a 
round shape, and coated with lead to resemble a bullet. The car- 
rier rode till daylight, then hitched his horse in the timber, and 
went to a house where he knew he would be well received. The 
lord of that house was a soldier in Marshall's little army, who 
served the Union there better than he could have done with a 
blue coat on. The lady of the house was loyal in a more open 
manner. Of course, the rebels knew of this mission, as they had 
Spies in Garfield's camp, and a squad of cavalry were on Jordan's 
trail. They came up with him at this house ; hastily giving the 
precious bullet to the woman, he made her swear to see that it 
reached its destination, and then broke out toward the woods. 
Two horsemen were guarding the door. To get the start of them, 
as the door opened, he brandished a red garment before the horses, 



A SOLDIER OF TPIE UNION.— ON THE MARCH. 99 

which scared them so that they were, for a moment, unmanagea- 
ble. In an instant he was over the fence. But the riders were 
gaining. Flash, went the scout's revolver, and the one man was 
in eternity ! Flash, again, and the other man's horse fell ! Before 
the rest of the squad could reach the spot, Jordan was safely out 
of their power. That night the woman who had sheltered him 
carried the dispatch, and a good meal, to a thicket near by, whither 
she was guided by the frequent hooting of an owl! And, after a 
ride of forty miles more, with several narrow escapes, the Colonel 
of the Forty-second at last read his orders from a crumpled piece 
of tissue paper. As for Jordan, he was back in Garfield's tent 
again two weeks later; but the faithful animal that carried him 
had fallen, pierced by a rebel ball. 

What, meanwhile, had been the progress of Garfield's forces in 
their attempt to reach Paintville? On the morning of December 
23d, the first day's march began. The rains of the preceding days 
had been stopped by extreme cold, and the hills were icy and 
slippery. The night before this march very few of the men had 
slept; but, instead of that, had crouched around camp-fires to keep 
from freezing. During the day they only advanced ten miles. In 
half that distance, one crooked little creek, M^hich wound around in 
a labyrinth of coils, was crossed no less than twenty-six times. 
This was slow progress, but the following days were slower still. 
Provisions were scarce. Most of the wagon-train and equipments 
had been loaded on boats to be taken up the river, and the sup- 
plies that had started with them were far in the rear. To meet 
their necessities, the men captured a farmer's pigs and poultrv with- 
out leave. But Garfield was no plunderer; he was a true soldier; 
and, after reprimanding the offenders, he repaid the farmer. 

On the 27th, a squad of Marshall's men were encountered, and 
two men captured. The next day the compliment was returned, 
and three Union soldiers became unwilling guests of the too hos- 
jMtable South. Thus slowly advancing, in spite of bad weather 
and bad roads, skirmishing daily with the enemy, as the opposing 
forces neared each other, on the 6th day of January, 1<SG2, the 
Eighteenth Brigade, except that portion which was coming from 



100 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

Paris, was encamped within seven miles of Paintville ; and at last 
it had become possible to bring things to a crisis, and determine, 
by the solemn wager of battle, who was entitled to this portion 
of Kentucky. 

Up to this time, Garfield had been- moving almost in the dark. 
He did not know what had become of his message to Cranor; he 
did not know the exact position of his enemy ; he did not know 
the number of the enemy. Now we shall see good fortune and 
good management remedy each of these weaknesses in a single 

day. 

Harry Brown had been a canal hand with Garfield in 1847, and 
the latter, with his genial ways, had made Brown his friend. At 
this time. Brown was a kind of camp-follower, and not very well 
trusted by the officers. But he knew the region well where these 
operations were going on, and hearing that his old comrade was 
commander, he hastened to offer his services as a scout. Garfield 
accepted, told him what he wanted, and through him learned very 
accurately the situation of the Confederate forces. On the night of 
the sixth, Jordan also appeared on the scene, with the information 
that Cranor was only two days' march behind. To crown all, a 
dispatch came from Buell, on the morning of the seventh, with a 
letter which had been intercepted. This letter was from Humphrey 
Marshall to his wife, and revealed the fact that his force was less 
than the country people, with their rebel sympathies, had repre- 
sented. It was determined to advance that day and attack the 
enemy at Paintville, where about one-third of them were posted. 

This attack on Paintville was a hazardous enterprise. In main 
strength, Marshall was so superior that Garfield's only hope was 
in devising some plan to outwit him. From the point of starting, 
there were three accessible paths; one on the west, striking Painter 
Creek opposite the mouth of Jenny Creek, three miles to the right, 
from the place to be attacked; one on the east, approaching that 
point from the left; and a third road, the most difficult of the 
three, straight across. Rebel pickets were thrown out on each 
road. Marshall was prepared to be attacked on one road, but 
never dreamed of a simultaneous approach of the enemy on all at 



A SOLDIEK OF THE UNION.— rAINT\^ILLE CAPTURED. 



101 



once; and it was this misapprehension which defeated him. First, 
a small detachment of infantry, supported by cavalry, attacked on 
the west, Avhereupou almost the entire rebel force was sent out to 
meet them. Shortly, a similar advance was made on the east, 
and the enemy retraced their steps for a defense in that direction. 
While they were thus held, the re- 
maining Union force drove in the 
pickets of the central path, who, 
finding- the village empty, rushed 
on three miles further, to a partially 
fortified place where Marshall him- 
self was waiting. Thinking that 
Paintville was lost, he hastily or- 
dered all his forces to retreat, which 
they did, as far as this fortified camp. 
Garfield entered Paintville at the 



same time. 



having with 



him the 




OPERATIONS IN WEST VIRGINIA. 



Forty-second Ohio, Fourteenth Ken- 
tucky, and four hundred Virginia 
cavalry. 

A portion of the cavalry were chasing the rebel horse, whom 
they followed five miles, killing three and wounding several. 
The Union force lost two killed and one wounded. The next day, 
the eighth of January, a few hours rest was taken, while preparations 
were being made for another fight. But towards evening it was 
determined to advance. Painter Creek was too high to ford. But 
there was a saw-mill near by, and in an hour a raft was made 
ujjon which to cross. Marshall, being posted concerning this 
movement, was deliberating what to do, when a spy came in with 
the information that Colonel Cranor was approaching, with 3,300 
men. Alarmed at such an overpowering enemy, he burnt his 
stores and fled precipitately toward Petersburg. At nine o'clock that 
night, the Eighteenth Brigade was snugly settled in the late Con- 
federate camp. Here it appeared that every thing had been left 
suddenly, and in confusion ; meat was left cooking before the fire, 
and all preparations for the evening meal abandoned. This place 



102 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

was at the top of a hill, three hundred feet high, covering about 
two acres, and would soon have been a strong fortification. 

On the ninth, Colonel Cranor did at last arrive, with his regi- 
ment, eight hundred strong, completely worn out with the long 
march. But Colonel Garfield felt that the present advantage must 
be pursued, or no permanent gain could result. So he raised 
1,100 men, who stepped from the ranks as volunteers, and imme- 
diately started on the trail of the enemy. 

The action which followed is known as the battle of Middle 
Creek. Eighteen miles further up the West Fork, along which 
they marched, two parallel creeks flow in between the hills; the 
northernmost one is Abbott's Creek, the next Middle Creek. It 
was evident that Marshall would place himself behind this double 
barrier and make a stand there, if he should endeavor to turn the 
tide of defeat at all. Toward this point the weary troops, there- 
fore, turned their steps. The way was so rough and the rains so 
hea^^ that they did not near the place until late in the day. But 
about .nine o'clock in the evening they climbed to the top of a hill, 
whose further slope led down into the valley of Abbott's Creek. 
On this height the enemy's pickets were encountered and driven 
in. Further investigation led to the conclusion that the enemy 
was near, in full force. That night the men slept on their arms in 
this exposed position ; the rain had turned to sleet, and any degree 
of comfort was a thing they ceased to look for. Perceiving the 
necessity for reinforcements. Colonel Garfield sent word to Colonel 
Cranor to send forward all available men. Meanwhile, efforts 
were made to learn Marshall's position, and arrange for battle. 
Our old friend John Jordan visited the hostile camp in the mealy 
clothes of a rebel miller, who had been captured, and returned 
with some very valuable information. Morning dawned, and the 
little Federal army proceeded cautiously down into the valley, then 
over the hills again, until, a mile beyond, they were ready to 
descend into the valley of Middle Creek, and charge . against the 
enemy on the opposite heights. Garfield's plan was to avoid a 
general engagement, until about the time for his reinforcements to 
appear, because otherwise it was plainly suicidal to attack such a 



A SOLDIER OF THE UNION.— FIGHT AT MIDDLE CREEK. 103 

large force. On this plan skirmishing continued from eight till 
one o'clock, the only result being a better knowledge of the situa- 
tion. Now it was high time to begin in earnest. In the center 
of the strip of meadow-land, which stretched between Middle 
Creek and the opposite hills, was a high point of ground, crowned 
by a little log church and a small graveyard. The first movement 
would be to occupy that place, in order to have a base of operations 
on that side. The rebel cavalry and artillery were each in posi- 
tion to control the church. But the guns were badly trained, and 
missed their mark; the cavalry made some show, but, for some 
reason, retired without much fighting. 

Keeping a reserve here, a portion of the brave eleven hundred 
were now to strike a decisive blow ; but the enemy's infantry was 
hidden, and they did not know just how to proceed. On the south 
side of Middle Creek, to the right of the place where the artillery 
was stationed, rose a high hill. Around it wound the creek, and 
following the creek ran a narrow, rocky road. The entire force of 
Marshall, except his reserve, was in fact hidden in the fastnesses 
of that irregular, forest-covered hill, and so placed as to command 
this road, by which it was expected that the Federal troops Avould 
approach. But " the best laid plans " sometimes go wrong. The 
Yankee was not to be entrapped. Suspecting some such situation, 
Garfield sent his escort of twelve men down the road; around the 
hill they clattered at a gallop, in full view of the enemy. The 
ruse worked well, and the sudden fire of several thousand mus- 
kets revealed the coveted secret. The riders returned safely, and 
then the battle began. Four hundred men of the Fortieth and 
Forty-second Ohio, under Major Pardee, quickly advanced up the 
hill in front, while two hundred of the Fourteenth Kentucky, under 
Lieutenant-Colonel Monroe, went down the road some distance and 
endeavored, by a flank movement, to so engage a ])ortion of the 
rebels that not all of them could be turned against Pardee. The 
latter now charged up the hill under a heavy fire. They were in- 
ferior in numbers, but determined to reach the summit some wav. 
So they broke ranks at tlie cry of " Every man to a tree," and 
faught after the Indian fashion. After all, the Union boys were 



104 



LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



not altogether at a disadvantage. Their opponents were raw- 
troops, and after the manner of inexperienced men they aimed too 
high, while the Federals did much better execution. But jSIar- 
shall meant business at this important hour, and sent his reserve 
to swell the number. A charge was made down the hill. Now 
the boys in blue retreat ; but not far. Garfield goes in with Jhs 
reserves. Captain Williams calls, "To the trees again, my boys;" 
they rally ; the fight grows hotter and whistling death is iu the 
air. The critical moment is here, and those poor fellows down be- 
low are about to be crushed. The exultant Confederates rush 
down in swelling volume, the wolf is about to seize his prey. 

But now a faint, though cheerful shout rings across the narrow 
valley; then louder it grows while the echoes clatter back from 
hillside to hillside like the tumult of ten thousand voices. The 
Confederates above peer out through the branches and view the 
opposite road. Every face, just flushed with hopes of victory, now 
turns pale at the sight. The force from Paintville has come at last. 
The hard-pressed men of Pardee can see nothing, but they catch 
new inspiration from the sound. They answer back ; while to the 
thousand voices and the ten thousand echoes on the Union side, 
one word of reply is given from the rebel commander's mouth. 
And the word he utters is — Retreat. 

This ended the struggle. Lieutenant-Colonel Sheldon, with his 
seven hundred men, after a hard day's march of twenty miles, 
came down on the scene of action at a run, and found that their 
approach had saved the day. Garfield and his men were already 
occupying the hill-top, and a detachment was following the fleeing 
troops of the enemy. The policy adopted, however, was to not 
follow the enemy very far, as it was not known in how bad a con- 
dition they were. The Union loss in this battle was two killed 
and twenty -five Avounded. The rebels left twenty -seven dead on 
the field, and had carried ofl^ about thirty-five more. 

The captures were, twenty-five men, ten horses, and a quantity 
of army supplies. Toward midnight a bright light appeared in 
the sky in the direction Marshall had taken. It was the light of 
his blazing wagons and camp equipments, burned by his men to 



A SOLDIER OF THE UNJON.— THE FKiHT AT MIDDTE CKKKK. 105 




Garfikld drives Humphrey Mahsmai.i, out of Kkstitky. 



106 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

keep them from doing any body else any good, while they made 
their enforced visit to Virginia by way of Pound Gap, The field 
was won ; and Buell's commission to Garfield had been faithfully 
performed. 

On the following day Colonel Garfield addressed his victorious 
men as follows: 

" Soldiers of the Eighteenth Brigade: I am proud of you all! In four 
weeks you have marched, some eighty and some a hundred miles, over 
almost impassable roads. One night in four you have slept, often in the 
storm, with only a wintry sky above your heads. You have marched in 
the face of a foe of more than double your number — led on by chiefs 
who have won a national renown under the Old Flag — intrenched in 
hills of his own choosing, and strengthened by all the appliances of mili- J 
tary art. With no experience but the consciousness of your own man- I 
hood, you have driven him from his strongholds, pursued his inglorious 
flight, and compelled him to meet you in battle. When forced to fight, 
he sought the shelter of rocks and hills. You drove him from his posi- 
tion, leaving scores of his bloody dead unburied. His artillery thun- 
dered against you, but you compelled him to flee by the light of his 
burning stores, and to leave even the banner of his rebellion behind him. 
I greet you as brave men. Our common country will not forget you. 
She will not forget the sacred dead who fell beside you, nor those of 
your comrades who won scars of honor on the field. 

"I have recalled you from the pursuit that you may regain vigor for 
still greater exertions. Let no one tarnish his well-earned honor by. any 
act unworthy an American soldier. Remember your duties as American 
citizens, and sacredly respect the rights and property of those with whom 
you may come in contact. Let it not be said that good men dread the 
approach of an American army. 

"Officers and soldiers, your duty has been nobly done. For this I 
thank you." 

On this day, January 11th, the troops took possession of Pres- 
tonburg, and the remaining duties of the campaign were only the 
working out in detail of results already secured. As to the merits 
of the decisive little fight at Middle Creek, Garfield said at a later 
time : " It was a very rash and imprudent aifair on my part. If 



A SOLDIER OF THE UNION.— A BRAVE DEED. 107 

I had been an officer of more experience, I probably should not 
have made the attack. As it was, having gone into the army with 
the notion that lighting was our business, I did n't know any bet- 
ter." And Judge Clark, of the Forty-second Ohio, adds : "And dur- 
ing it all, Garfield was the soldiers' friend. Such was his affection 
for the men that he would divide his last rations with them, and 
nobody ever found any thing better at head-quarters than the 
rest got." 

Indeed, there was one occasion, I believe just after this engage- 
ment, when the Eighteenth Brigade owed to its brave commander 
its possession of any thing at all to eat. The roads had become 
impassable, rations were growing scarce, and the Big Sandy, on 
which they relied, was so high that nothing could be brought up 
to them ; at least the boatmen thought so. But our old acquaint- 
ance, the canal boy, still survived, in the shape of a gallant colo- 
nel, and with his admirer and former canal companion. Brown, 
Garfield boldly started down the raging stream in a skiff. Arriv- 
ing at Catlettsburg, he found a small steamer, the Sandy Valley, 
which he loaded with provisions, and ordered captain and crew to 
get up steam and take him back. They all refused, on the ground 
that such an attempt would end in failure, and probably in loss of 
life. But they did not know their man. His orders were re- 
peated, and he went to the wheel himself. It was a wild torrent 
to run against. The river was far out of its natural limits, rush- 
ing around the foot of a chain of hills at sharp curves. In some 
places it was over fifty feet deep, and where the opposite banks 
rose close together the half-undermined trees would lean inward, 
their interlocking branches making the passage beneath both dif- 
ficult and dangerous. But the undaunted leader pressed on, him- 
self at the wheel forty hours out of the forty-eight. Brown 
stood steadfastly at the bow, carrying a forked pole, with which 
to ward off the big logs and trees which constantly threatened to 
strike the boat and stave in the bottom. The most exciting in- 
cident of all occurred the second night. At a sharp turn the 
narrow and impetuous flood whirled round and round, a boiling 
whirlpool; and in spite of great care the boat turned sidewise, 



108 



LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



aud stuck fast in the muddy bank. Repeated ciforts to pry the 
boat off were unavailing, and at last a new plan was suggested. 
Colonel Garfield ordered the men to lower a small boat, carry a 




burg, 
skiff 



the little steamer 
out of difficulty. 
They said no liv- 
ing mortal " could 
attempt that feat 
and not die. This 
was just what they 
had said about 
starting the steam- 
er from Catletts- 
and the answer was similar. Our hero leaped into the 
himself, the faithful Brown following. 



GARFIEI^D'S EXPT^OIT ON THE BIG SANDY- 



I 



A SOLDIER OF THE UNION.— ON THE BIG SANDY. 109 

Sturdily and steadily they pulled away, and in ludi" an hour 
were on terra jirma once more. Line in hand, they walked up to 
a place opposite the Sandy Valley, fixed the rope to a rail, and 
standing at the other end with an intervening tree to give leverage, 
soon had the satisfaction of seeing, or rather in the darkness feel- 
ing, the steamer swing out again into the current. After this impos- 
sibility had been turned into history, there was no more doubting 
from the incredulous crew. They concluded that this man could 
do any thing, and henceforth helped him willingly. At the end 
of three days, amid prolonged and enthusiastic cheering from the 
half-starved waiting brigade, the Sanely Valley arrived at her des- 
tination, and James A. Garfield had finished one more of his 
great life's thousand deeds of heroism. 

Immediately after the battle of Middle Creek great consterna- 
tion filled the minds of that ignorant population which filled the 
valley of the Big Sandy. The flying rebels, the dead and the 
debris of a fugitive army, and wild stories of savage barbarities 
practiced by an inhuman Yankee soldiery, had been more than 
enough for their fortitude. They fled like frightened deer at the 
blast of a hunter's horn, and sought safety in mountain fast- 
nesses. It was therefore neces.sary by some means to gain their 
confidence, and for this purpose the following proclamation was 
issued from the Federal head-quarters: 

"Head-Quarters Eighteenth Brigade, \ 
" Paintville, Ky., Janiiiiry IH, 1862. ) 

"Citizens of the Sandy Valley: I have come among you to restore the 
honor of the Union, and to bring back the Old Banner which you all 
once loved, but which, by the machinations of evil men, and by mu- 
tual mis;jnderstaiidings, has been (JLshonored among you. To those 
who are in arms against the Federal Government I offer only the alterna- 
tive of battle or unconditional surrender; but to those who have taken 
no part in this war, who are in no way aiding or abetting the enemies 
of the Union, even to those who hold sentiments adverse to the Union, 
but yet give no aid and comfort to its enemies, I offer the full protection 
of the Government, both in their persons and property. 

" Let those who have been seduced awav from the love of their coun- 



,110 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

try, to follow after and aid the destroyers of our peace, lay down their 
arms, return to their homes, bear true allegiance to the Federal Govern- 
ment, and they also shall enjoy like protection. The army of the Union 
wages no war of plunder, but comes to bring back the prosperity of 
peace. Let all peace-loving citizens who have fled from their homes 
return, and resume again the pursuits of peace and industry. If citi- 
zens have suffered from any outrages by the soldiers under my com- 
mand, I invite them to make known their complaints to me, and their 
wrongs shall be redressed, and the offenders punished. I expect the 
friends of the Union in this valley to banish from among them all pri- 
vate feuds, and to let a liberal-minded love of country direct their con- 
duct toward those who have been so sadly estranged and misguided. I 
hope that these days of turbulence may soon end, and the better days of 
the Republic may soon return. 

"[Signed], "James A. Garfield, 

" Colonel Commanding Brigade." 

i^ter the true character of the invaders became known, the 
natives were as familiar as they had been shy, and multitudes of 
them came into camp. From their reports, and from the indus- 
try of the small parties of cavalry which scoured the country in 
all directions, it was established beyond doubt that the rebel army 
had no more foot-hold in the State ; although sundry small par- 
ties still remained, endeavoring to secure recruits for the forces in 
"Virginia, and destroying many things which could be of use to the 
Union soldiers. In order to be nearer the scene of these petty 
operations. Colonel Garfield moved his head-quarters to Piketon, 
thirty miles further up the river. From this point he effectually 
stopped all further depredations, except in one locality. And it 
was in removing this exception to their general supremacy that 
the Eighteenth Brigade performed its last notable exploit in East- 
ern Kentucky. 

The principal pathway between Virginia and South-Eastern 
Kentucky is by means of Pound Gap. This is a rugged pass in 
the Cumberland Mountains, through which Marshall had in the 
fall of 1861 made his loudly-heralded advance, and, later, his in- 
glorious retreat. Here one jSIajor Thomas had made a stand, with 



A SOLDIER OF THE UNION.— CAPTUEES TOUND GAP. Ill 

about six hundred men. Log huts were built by them for shelter, 
the narrow entrance to their eamp w^as well fortified, and for snug 
winter-quarters they could want nothing better. When in need of 
provisions a small party would sally forth, dash down into the 
valleys, and return well laden with plunder. Garfield soon de- 
termined to break up this mountain nest ; and early in INIarch was 
incited to immediate action by a report that Humphrey Marshall 
was making that place the starting point for a new expedition. 
He had issued orders for all available forces to be gathered there 
on the 15th of March, preparatory to the intended re-invasion of 
Kentucky. To frustrate this scheme, Garfield started for Pound 
Gap with six hundred infantry and a hundred cavalry. It was a 
march of forty-five miles from Piketon in a south-westerly direc- 
tion. Deep snows covered the ground, icy hillsides Avere hard to 
climb, and progress was difficult. On the evening of the second 
day, however, they reached the foot of the ascent which led up to 
the object for which they had come. Here they stopped until 
morning, meanwhile endeavoring to discover the number and con- 
dition of the mountain paths. The information obtained was 
meager, but sufficient to help form a plan of attack. One main 
path led directly up to the Gap. When morning came, Garfield 
sent his cavalry straight up in this direction, to occupy the euemy's 
attention, while with the infantry he was climbing the mountains 
and endeavoring to surprise them in the rear. After a long and 
perilous scramble, they reached a point within a quarter of a mile 
of the rebel camp. They were first apprized of their nearness to 
it by the sight of a picket, who fired on them and hastened to 
give the alarm. But the eager troops was close after him, and the 
panic-stricken marauders vanished hastily without a struggle, and 
were chased by the Union cavalry far into Virginia. 

After resting a day and night in these luxurious quarters, the huts 
were burned, the fortifications destroyed, and in less than five days 
from the start, the successful Colonel was back again in Piketon. 

This was the end of Garfield's campaign in East Kentucky. 
There was no more fighting to be done; and after a few days he 
was called into another field of action. 



112 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

When Colonel Garfield's official report of the battle of Middle 
Creek reached Lonisville, General Buell replied by the following, 
which tells the story of his delight at the result: 

" Head-Quakters Department of the Ohio, 
Louisville, Ky., January 20th, 1862. 

^'General Orders, No. 40. 

" The General Commanding takes occasion to thank Colonel Garfield 
and his troops for their successful campaign against the rebel force un- 
der General Marshall, on the Big Sandy, and their gallant conduct in 
battle. They have overcome formidable diflficulties in the cliaracter of 
the country, the condition of the roads, and the inclemency of the season; 
and, without artillery, liave in several engagements, terminating with the 
battle on Middle Creek on the 10th inst., driven the enemy from his in- 
trenched positions, and forced him back into tlie mountains with the 
loss of a large amount of baggage and stores, and many of his men killed 
or captured. 

" These services have called into action the highest qualities of a sol- 
dier — fortitude, perseverance, courage. 

" By command of General Buell. " James B. Fky, 

"A. A. G., Chief of Staff.". 

But this was not the only reward. The news went on to Wash- 
ington, and in a few days Garfield received his commission as a 
Brigadier-General, dated back to January 10th. 

The defeat of Marshall was conspicuous on account of its place 
and time. Since the defeat of the Union army at Bull Bun, in July 
of the preceding year, no important victory had been gained. The 
confidence of the North in its military leaders had began to waver. 
General McClellan had turned himself and his army into a gigan- 
tic stumbling block, and patriots were getting discouraged. No 
wonder that Lincoln and Buell were grateful for a man who was 
willing to wade through difficulties, and disturb the stagnant pool 
of listless war ! 

On the night of January 10, an interview occurred between the 
President and several persons, one of whom. General McDowell, 
has preserved the knowledge of what occurred in a memorandum 
made at the time. He says : 



A SOLDIER OF THE UNION.— KENTUCKY CAMPAIGN. 113 

*' The Presideut was greatly disturbed at the state of affairs. Spoke 
of the exhausted condition of the treasury ; of the loss of public credit ; 
of the Jacobiuism of Congress; of the delicate condition of our forei"-u 
relations ; of the bad news he bad i-eceived from the West, j)articularly 
as contained in a letter from General Hallcck on the state of affairs in 
I\Iissouri ; of the want of coopei-ation between Generals Halleck and 
Buell; but, more than all, the sickness of General IMcClellan. The 
President said he was in great distress ; and, as he had been to General 
McClellan's house, and the General did not ask to see him, and as he must 
talk to somebody, he had sent for General Franklin and myself to obtain 
our opinion as to the possiltility of soon commencing active operations 
with the Army of the Potomac. To use his own expression, if some- 
thing was not soon done, the bottom would he out of the whole affair ; 
and if General oMcClellan did not want to use the army, he would like to 
borroic it, provided he could see how it could be made to do something." 

This shows how necessary some decisive action now was to the 
safety of the Union. And to Garfield belonged the honor of ush- 
ering in an era of glorious successes. 

On the 19th of January, General Thomas defeated ZolIicofFer's 
army, killed its general, and chased the remnants into Tennessee. 
This gave us Kentucky, and completed the break in the extreme 
right wing of Johnston's Confederate army. Just after this came 
Grant's successful move on the left wing of that armv. Proceed- 
ing rapidly up the Tennessee, he took Fort Henry, then crossed 
over to the Cumberland, and, on February IGth, captured Fort 
Donelson. Other actions followed in quick succession. The South, 
fallen into false security during our long inactivity, was complctclv 
astonished. The North, thorouglily aroused, believed in itself 
again; and, with exultant tread, our armies began to march rapidlv 
into the enemy's countrv. 

Colonel Garfield's career in the Sandy Yallcy Mas not tlic cause 

of all these good tilings. Tlic first faint light which warns a 

watcher of the dawn of day, is not the cause of day. But that 

early light is looked for none the less eagerly. INIiddle Creek was 

greeted by a Nation Avith just such sentiments. 

Historians of the Civil War will not waste much time in con- 
S 



114 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

siderliig this Kentucky campaign. Its range was too small; the 
student's attention is naturally drawn to the more striking fortunes 
of the greater armies of the Republic. But, as we have seen, the 
intrinsic merits of Colonel Garfield's work here were such as forced 
it upon the attention of his official superiors. As we have also seen, 
this campaign occurred at a time when small advantages could be 
appreciated, because no great ones were being secured. And the 
hand of Time, which obliterates campaigns, and effaces kingdoms, 
and sinks continents out of sight, will never quite neglect to keep 
a torch lighted here, until the starry light of all our triumphs shall 
go out in the darkness together. 



IIEKO AND GEXERAL,—XT PITTSBUEG L.^:N'DIXa 115 



CHAPTER V. 

lIEKO AND GENERAL. 

OX tlic 23d of ]\Inrcii, 1862, orders reached General Garfield, 
in Eastern Kentucky, to report at once, with his command, 
to General Buell at Louisville„ It had been determined to con- 
centrate tlic Army of the Ohio under Buell, move southward to 
Savannah, Tennessee, there effect a junction Mith the Army of the 
Tennessee, which, under General Grant, was on its way up the 
Tennessee River, after the victories at Forts Donelson and Henry, 
and, with the united force, move forward to Corinth, Mississippi — 
the strategic point of tlic whole region. The order to Garfield 
M'as a part of the concentration of Buell's forces preparatory to 
the southern movement. The lesser units of the army were to 
be absorbed into the greater, and Garfield ceased from that time 
to be a commander of an independent force, and became merged, 
with others of his rank, in the great Army of the Ohio. He 
proceeded to Louisville with all possible dispatch. But, so far 
awav had he been from any direct communication with head- 
quarters, and so long were the orders in reaching him, that he 
reached Louisville only to find Buell already far on the road to 
Savannah. Finding that orders had been left for him, he at once 
hurried southward, and overtook Buell at Columbia, where the 
army had to construct a bridge over Duck Bivcr. The rebels 
had burned the old bridge; and, at that stage of the war, pon- 
toon bridges were not to be liad. Garfield was at once assigned 
to the command of the Twentieth Brigade, of General Thomas J. 
Wood's division. During this delay at Duck Kiver, General 
Xelson, hearing that Grant had already rcjichcd Savannah, asked 
permission of Buell to let his division fi)rd or swim the river and 
hurrv on to Grant. As there was no known reason for hurrving 
to Grant, who sent word that he was in no danger of attack, the 



IIG LIFE OF J.OIES A. GAEFIELD. 

permission was coldly given. But it was this impatience of Nel- 
son which saved Grant's array at Shiloh. With Nelson's division a 
day in advance, the remainder of the army followed at intervals — 
with Crittenden's division second, McCook's third, then Wood's — 
to which Garfield belonged — and last Thomas's. It had been in- 
tended to halt at Waynesboro for a day's rest, but the impetuous 
Nelson was beyond the town before he had heard of it, and his 
speed had communicated itself to the succeeding divisions. In 
this way Nelson reached Savannah on the 5th of April. Grant's 
army was at Pittsburg Landing, ten miles up the river. The 
world knows of the unexpected and tei'rific battle, beginning on 
the 6th and lasting two days. Nelson reached Grant at 5 p. m. of 
the first day's fight, Crittenden during the night, and McCook 
about 9 A. M. of the next day. These reinforcements alone saved 
Grant's army from destruction. Wood, impeded by the baggage 
trains abandoned in the road by the preceding divisions, who were 
straining every nerve to reach Grant in time, only reached the 
battle-field as the fighting closed. Garfield's brigade and some 
other troops were seat in pui'suit of the flying enemy ; but their 
s:reat fotiOTe from continuous marching, and the darkness of the 
night, soon recalled the pursuit. On the following morning, Gar- 
field's brigade took part in a severe fight with the enemy's cavalry, 
but it was only a demonstration to cover retreat. 

Halleck, Commander-in-Chief, reached Pittsburg Landing April 
11th, and began a remarkably slow advance upon Corinth, the ob- 
jective point of the campaign. The army was required to con- 
struct parallels of fortification to cover each day's advance ; and, 
in this way, it took six weeks to march the thirty miles which lay 
between the army and Corinth. While lying before Corinth, as 
throughout his career in the army, Garfield gratified, as much as 
possible, his love of literature. He had with him several small 
volumes of the classics, which he read every day. He rather pre- 
ferred Horace, as being " the most philosophic of the pagans." 

During this time an incident occurred which showed v^'cll the 
character of Garfield. One day a Southern ruffian, a human l)lood- 
hound, came riding into camp, demanding that the soldiers hunt 



¥ 

HEKO AND GENERAL.— SIEGE OF COEINTII. 117 A. 

and deliver to him a wretched fu;j:itive slave who had ])rcccded 
him. U1ic ])()c)r negro, who was badl}' wounded from the l)l(>ws 
of the bully's whip, had sought the blue-coats for protection, and 
had sueeeeded in concealing himself from his relentless pursuer 
among Garfield's command. The swearing braggart, being mis- 
led and foiled by the soldiers, who not only sympathized wuth the 
slave, but enjoyed the swaggerer's Avrath, at length demanded to 
be shown to the head-quarters of the division commander. The 
latter, after hearing the complaint, wrote an order to Garfield to 
require his men to hunt out and surrender the trembling vaga- 
bond. Garfield took the order from the aid, read it, quietly re- 
folded it, and indorsed on it the following reply: 

" I respectfully, but positively, decline to allow my command to search 
for, or deliver up, any fugitive slaves. I conceive that they are here for 
quite another purpose. The command is ojien, and no obstacle Avill be 
placed in the way of the search." 

It was a courageous act, but he had never known fear. A court- 
martial, with a swift sentence of death, was the remedy for refusals 
to obey orders. When told of his danger, he said: 

"The matter may as well be tested first as last. Eight is right, and I 
do not propose to mince matters at all. Jly soldiers are here for far other 
purposes than hunting and returning fugitive slaves. IMy people on the 
Western Reserve of Ohio did not send my bo^'s and myself down here 
to do that kind of business, and they will back me up in my action." 

But no court-martial was held. A short time afterwards the 
War Department issued a general order embodying the principle 
of Garfield's refusal; and from that time it was the rule in all the 
armies of the Republic that no soldier should hound a human being 
back to fetters. 

After the six weeks^ preparation for the siege of Corinth, Halleck 
found that only the hull of the nut was left for him. The wily enemy 
had evacuated the place without a struggle. The vast Union army, 
which had been massed for this cam])aign, having no foe to oppose 
it, was resolved into its original elements. The Army of the Ohio, 
under Bucll, was ordered to East Tennessee, preparatory to an at- 



^9 

^/ 118 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

tack on Chattanooga. The advance to the cast, was along the h"ne 
of the Memphis and Chattanooga Railroad. This road had to be 
almost entirely rebuilt, as the supplies for the army were to come 
along its line. This work of rebuilding was assigned to AYood's 
division, and Garfield's brigade laid down the musket to han- 
dle the spade and liammcr. Here, Garfield's boyhood experi- 
ience with tools, was of incalculable value. If a culvert was to 
be built, his head planned a swift, but substantial way, to build it. 
If a bridge had been burned, his eye saw quickly how to shape 
the spans, and secure the braces. His mind was of the rare sort 
which combines speculative with practical powci-s. His spirit elec- 
trified his men, as it had the school at Hiram ; and, in the drudg- 
ciy of the work, from which the inspiration of battle was wholly 
wanting, it was he who cheered and encouraged their unwonted 
toil. The work, for the time being, having been finished, Garfield's 
head-quarters were established at Huntsville, Alabama, the most 
beautiful town in America. But the exposures of army life, the 
tremendous exertions put forth in rebuilding the railroad, and the 
fierce ravs of the summer sun, in the unaccustomed clinuite, laid 
hold on his constitution, in which the old boyhood tendency to 
ague was all the time dormant ; and in the latter part of July, 1862, 
he was attacked by malarial fever. In the rough surroundings of 
the camp, as he tossed on bis feverish couch, his thoughts turned 
lonerinfflv to the voung wife and child in that humble northern home. 
Procuring sick-leave, he started north about the first of August. 
The AVar Department had an eye upon Garfield, and determined 
to give his abilities free scope. Five divisions of BuelPs army 
we have followed to Corinth, and thence, along the tedious march 
to Chattanooga. A sixth division had been sent on a separate ex- 
pedition to K^orthern IMississippi, and a seventh, under General 
Geo. W. Morgan, to occupy East Tennessee, and, in particular, Cum- 
berland Gap. In the early part of August, orders reached Garfield 
to proceed to Cumberland Gap and take command of the seventh 
division of the Army of the Ohio, relieving General Morgan. But 
when the order reached Garfield, he was already on his way north^ 
fast held by the malignant clutch of low fever. 



HERO AND GENERAL.— rORTER COURT-MARTIAL. 



119 /< 



While Garfield had been with the army before Corinth, and on 
the line of march toward Chattanooga, the general discipline was 
very loose. The army camp is the most demoralizing place in the 
world. The men lose all self-restraint, and lapse into ferocious 
and barbarous manners. The check for this is discipline; but the 
volunteer troops, in the early stages of the war, utterly scouted the 
idea of discipline. To render it effective, the Army of the Ohio 
had to be reduced to a basis of strict military order. Courts-mar- 
tial were frequent- Garfield's judicial mind and sound judgment, 
combined with the knowledge of discipline which his experience 
as a teacher had given him, caused him to be sought for eagerly, 
to conduct these courts-martial. He was idolized by his own men, 
but his ability in the drum-head courts spread his fame through- 
out the division. The trial of Colonel Turchin, for conduct unbe- 
coming an officer, was the one which attracted most attention. 

The report of the trial to the War Department, prepared by 
Garfield, had served to still further heighten the opinion of his 
abilities entertained there. Garfield had been at home, on his 
sick leave, about a month, and had begun to rally from the fever, 
when he received orders to report at Washington City as soon as 
his health would permit. Shortly after this he again bade fare- 
well to his girlish wife, and started to the Capital. The service for 
which he was required there, was none other than to sit on the 
memorable court-martial of Fitz-John Porter, the most important 
military trial of the war. The charges against Porter are well 
known. He was accused of having disobeyed five distinct orders 
to bring his command to the front in time to take part in the 
second battle of Bull Run. The trial lasted nearly two months. 
Garfield was required to pass upon complicated questions, involv- 
ing the rules of war, the situation and surroundings of Porter's 
command previous to the battle, the duties of subordinate eon>- 
manders, and the military possibilities of the situation. In such a 
trial, the common sense of a strong, l)ut unprofessional mind, was 
more valuable than the technical training of a soldier. The (pies- 
tion at issue Avas, whether Porter had kept his own opinions to 
himself and cheerfully obeyed hi^ superior's orders, even if he did 



120 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

not approve them, or whether, through anocr or jealousy, he had 
sulked in the rear, so as to insure the defeat whieh he proph- 
esied/ Garfield threw all his powers into the investigation, aud 
at last was convinced that Porter was guilty. Such was the ver- 
dict of the Court; such, the opinion of Presidents Lincoln and 
Grant, and such will be the opinion of posterity. 

During this trial, Gai'field became a warm friend of Major-Gen- 
eral Hunter, the presiding officer of the court, and in command of 
our forces in South Carolina. After the adjournment. Hunter 
made an application to Secretary Stanton to have Garfield assigned 
t6 the Army of South Carolina. The appointment was made. It 
was gratifying to Garfield, because Hunter was one of the strong 
antislavery generals, whom, at that time, were few enough. Gar- 
field felt that the war, though being fought on the technical ques- 
tion of a State's right to secede, was reallv a war to destrov the 
hideous and bloody institution of slavery, and he wished to see it 
carried on with that avowed purpose. As he aftersA-ards expressed 
it : " In the very crisis of our fate, God brought us foce to face 
Avith the alarming truth, that we must lose our own freedom or 
grant it to the slave." 

In the same address from which the above is taken, which was 
delivered before the war had actually closed, he. declared that 
slavery was dead, and the war had killed it : 

"We shall never know why slavery dies so hard in this Kepahlic 
and iu this hall till we know why sin has ,such longevity aifd Satan is 
immortal. With marvelous tenacity of existence, it has outlived the 
expectations of its friends and the hopes of its enemies. It has been 
declared here and elsewhere to be in all the several stages of raortnlity, 
wounded, moribund, dead. The question has been raised, whether it 
was indeed dead, or only in a troubled sleep. I know of no better illus- 
tration of its condition than is found in Sallust's admirable history of 
the great conspirator Catiline, who, when his final battle was fought 
and lost, his army broken and scattered, was found far in advance of 
his own troops, lying among the dead enemies of Rome, yet breathing a 
little, but exhibiting in his countenance all that ferocity of spirit which 
had characterized his life. So, sir, this body of slavery lies before us 



HERO AND GENERAL.— CHIEF OF STAFF. . 121 K^ 

among the dead enemies of the Republic, mortally wounded, impotent 
iu its iientlisli wickedness, but with its old ferocity of look, bearing the 
unmistakable marks of its infernal origin," — House of RejiresenMives, 
January 13, 18G5. 

But in war it is always the unexpected wluch happens. Pend- 
ing Garfield's departure to Hunter's command, his old army, then 
mero-ed with the Army of the Cumberland, under the coniman<l 
of General Rosecrans, who relieved Bucll, had, on the last day 
of the year of 18G2, plunged into the battle of Stone River. 
DuriniT the dav a cannon-ball took off the head of the beloved 
Garesche, chief of General Rosecrans's staff. The place was im- 
portant, and hard to lill. It required a man of high military 
ability to act as chief confidential adviser of the commanding 
general, both as to the general plan of a campaign, and the im- 
perious exigencies of battle. Rosecrans had relied much on Gar- 
esche, and, just Avhcn so much was expected of the Army of the 
Cumberland, the War Department feared the testy General might 
become unmanageable, and, though well versed in the practice of 
warfare, give way just at' the crisis. The chief of staff also had 
to be a man of pleasant social qualities to fit him for the intimate 
relation. 

Much as the" War Department at Washington thought of Rose- 
crans at this time, his violent temper and invincible obstinacy 
rendered it imperative that some one should be with him who 
would prevent an absolute rupture upon trifling grounds. But in 
addition to these things, the chief of staff had to be a man of 
faultless generosity and unselfishness ; he had to be a man who 
would exert his own genius for another's glory; he had to be will- 
ing to see the plans of brilliant campaigns, Avhich were the product 
of his own mind, taken up and used by another; he had tp be will- 
ing to see reports of victories, which were the results of his own 
military skill, sent to Washington over the name of the command- 
ing general, iu which his own name was never mentioned. He was 
to do the work and get no glory for it. All this he had to do 
cheerfully, and with a he:irt loyal to his superior. There nuist be 
no division of counsel, no lukewarm support, no heart-burnings 



^ 122 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

at heacl-fiuarters. To the army and the world there was but one 
man — the general. In reality there were two men — the general 
and his chief of staff. 

A prime minister sometimes succeeds in erecting for himself a 
fame separate, and not merged in the splendor of his soyereign. 
AVolsey and Richelieu and Talleyrand all did so. But the chief 
of staff was to know no fame, no name for himself. His light 
was merged and lost in the corruscations of the man above him. 
To find a man who united the highest military ability with a 
genial nature, and who was willing to go utterly without glory 
himself, was a difficult task. In a moment Stanton fixed his eye 
on Garfield. Without warning, the commission to South Carolina 
was revoked. Garfield was ordered to report at once to General 
Rosecrans, whose head-quarters were at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 
as a result of the victory at Stone River. 

Rosecrans has said that he was prejudiced against Garfield before 
his arrival. He had heard that he was a Campbellite preacher, 
and fond of theological debate, and a school teacher. These three 
tilings were enough to spoil any man for Rosecrans. So he gave 
Garfield a cool enough reception on the January morning when 
the latter presented himself at head-quarters. Rosecrans, of course, 
had the option of taking the man whom the Dcpartnlent had sent 
him, to be his confidential adviser or not. Garfield's appearance, 
to be sure, was not that of the pious fraud, or the religious wran- 
gler, or the precise pedagogue. In the book, Down in Tennessee, 
we find the following superb description of his appearance at this 
time, by one who saw him : 

" In a corner by the window, seated at a sma^l pine desk — a sort of 
packing-box, perched on a long-legged stool, and divided into pigeon- 
holes, with a turn-down lid — was a tall, deep-chested, siuewy-built man, 
with regular, massive features, a full, clear blue eye, slightly tinged 
witli gray, and a high, broad foreliead, rising into a ridge over the eyes, 
as if it had been thrown up by a plow. There was something singularly 
engaging in his open, expressive face, and his whole appearance indi-. 
cated, as the phrase goes, ' great reserve power.' His uniform, though 
cleanly brushed and sitting easily upon him, had a sort of democratic 



HERO AND GENERAL.— AT HEAD-QUARTERS. 123 X 

air, and every thing about hiiu seemed to denote tliat he was 'a man of 
the people.' A rusty slouched hat, large enough to have fitted Daniel 
Webster, lay on the desk before him; but a glance at that Avas not 
needed to convince me that his head held more than the common share 
of brains. Though he is yet young— not thirty-three — the reader has 
heard of him, and if ho lives he will make his name long remembered 
in our historv." 

After soniG conversation, Rosccrans concluded to o;o a little 
sloAV before, ho rejected his services. lie kept Garfield around 
head-quarters for a day or two, quizzing him occasionally, and try- 
ing to make u\) his estimate of the man. This sort of dancing 
attendance for a position he did not Avant, would have galled a 
man of less ability and cheaper pride than Garfield ; but he had 
the patience of a planet. "^^ Rosey," as his soldiers called him, 
soon found himself liking this great whole-souled Ohioan, and, 
uhat Avas still more significant, he began to reverence the genius 
of the man. He was unable to sink a plumb-line to the bottom 
of Garfield's mind. After each conversation, the depths of reserve 
power seemed deeper than before. Rosccrans decided within him- 
self to take liim, if possible. Only one thing stood in the way. 
If Garfield preferred to go to the field, as he had himself proph- 
esied from his name (Guard-of-the-field) just befi)re leaving col- 
lege in 185G, Rosccrans was not the man to chain him up at head- 
quarters. The choice was open to Garfield to take a division or 
acce])t the position of chief of staff. The latter had fifly times the 
responsibility, and no opportunity whatever for fame. But with- 
out a moment's struggle, Garfield quietly said : " If you want my 
services as chief of staff, you can have them." 

The opinion in the army of the selection of General Garfield to 
succeed the lamented Garesche, may be gathered from a volume 
called: "uiniials of the Army of the CinnbcrlamJ," ])ublislied shortly 
af\er Garfield's ap])ointmcnt, and written by an officer in (he army. 
" With the seleclion of General Garfield, universal satisfliction is 
everywhere expressed. Possessed of sound natural sense, an 
c-xcellcnt judgment, a highly cultivated intellect, and the deserved 
reputation of a successful military leader, he is not only the 



IL124 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

Mentor of the staff, but his opinions arc sought and his counsels 
heeded by many who are older, and not less distinguished than 
himself." 

An incident which occurred soon after his appointment, illus- 
trates well the aspect of his many-sided character, as presented to 
the common soldier. Civilians have little idea of the gulf which 
military discipline and etiquette places between the regular army 
officer and the private soldier. Never was a Russian czar more of 
a despot and autocrat than a West Point graduate. It seems to 
be an unavoidable outgrowth of the profession of arms and mili- 
tary discipline that the officer should be a sultan and the private 
a slave. One night, at Rosecrans's head-quarters in Murfrecs- 
boro, the officers' council lasted till the small hours of the 
morning. The outer hall, into which the room used by the council 
opened, was occupied by a dozen orderly sergeants, who were 
required to be there, ready for instant service all the time. As 
the hours advanced, and there was no indication of an adjourn- 
ment within, t'liis outer council got sleepy, and selecting one of 
its number to keep watch, rolled itself up in various ragged army 
blankets and tumbled on the floor. It was not long till the air 
trembled with heavy blasts from the leaden trumpet of sleep. Th» 
unlucky fellow, who was left to guard, was envious enough of his 
sleeping comrades. Tilting his seat back against the wall, he sank 
into deep meditation upon the pleasures of sleep. A few minutes 
later, sundry sudden jerks of his head, from side to side, told that 
he, too, had found surcease from sorrow in sonorous slumber. Just 
at this unlucky moment the door opened, and General Garfield 
stepped out into the dimly-lighted passage, on his way to his 
quarters. The sleeper's legs were stretched out far in front of 
him with lofty negligence; his arms hung by his side; his head, 
from which the cap was gone, hung down in an alarming manner, 
as if he were making a profound and attentive investigation of his 
boots. At this unlucky moment, Garfield stumbled over the ser- 
geant, and fell with his full Aveight upon tJie frightened orderly. 
Military discipline required that Garfield should fire a volley of 
oaths at the poor fellow, supplemented by a heavy cannonade of 



HERO AND GENERAL.— AX INCIDENT. 125 X 

kicks iu the enemy's rear, and the cutting down of his supplies to 
bread and water for a week. Orderlies at head-quarters knew this 
to be the plan of battle. General Garfield rose to his feet as 
quickly as possible, gave the unfortunate and trembling sergeant 
his assistance to rise, and after a kindly " excuse me, Sergeant, I 
did not see you. I 'm afraid you did not 'find me very light," 
passed on "his way. It is easy to see why the common soldiers 
loved a chief of staff in whom the gentleman was stronger than 
the officer. 

Durintr the tedious dclav at INIurfreesboro, the officers and 
men exercised their ingenuity in inventing games to pass away 
the time. Phil. Sheridan, out at his quarters in the forest sur- 
rounding the town, had invented a game which he called Dutch 
ten-pins. Out in front of his cabin, from the limb of a lofty tree, 
was suspended a rope. At the end was attached a cannon-ball, 
small enough to be easily grasped by the hand. Underneath the 
rope were set the ten-pins, with sufficient spaces between them for 
the ball to pass without hitting. At first the fun-loving little 
General only tried to throw the ball between the pins without 
knocking any. But as his skill increased, he enlarged the oppor- 
tunity for it by making the game to consist not only in avoiding 
the pins on the throw, but in making the ball hit them on the 
return. Sheridan became very fond of the exercise, and in the 
three throws allowed each player for a game, he could bring down 
twenty pins out of the thirty possible. The reputation of the 
novel game and Sheridan's skill reached the commanding General's 
head-quarters. One day Rosecrans, Garfield, and a few brother 
officers, rode out to see " little Phil," as Sheridan was called, and 
take a hand in the game which had made for itself such a name. 
The guests were cordially received, and after a good many jokes 
and much bantering, Sheridan began the game. At the first throw 
the returning ball brought down six pins; at the second, seven; 
and the third the same number, making a score of twenty. Several 
tried with more or less success, but not approaching the host's 
score. When Rosecrans took the ball, the merry company laughed 
at his nervous way of handling it. After a lengthy aim, he threw 



r 



126 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

and knocked down every pin by the throw. Again he tried it, and 
again the ball failed even to get through the wooden line. Sheridan 
nearlv exploded with laughter. A third time he met with the same 
ill-luck, failing to make a single tally. Then General Garfield 
stepped forward, saying: "It's nothing but mathematics. All yOu 
need is an eye and a hand." So saying, he carelessly threw the 
ball, safely clearing the pins on the forward swing, and bringing 
down seven on the return. Every body shouted ''Luck! luck! 
Try that again." The chief of staff laughed heartily, and with 
stiil greater indiiferencc, tossed the ball, making eight; the thiid 
throw had a like result, scoring Garfield twenty-three, and giving 
him the game. It was no wonder that an officer said of him, 
"That' man Garfield beats every thing. No matter what he does, 
he is the superior of his competitors, without half trying." 

On the '25th of April, 1863, Garfield issued a circular to the 
Army of the Cumberland, upon the barbarities and unspeakable 
outrages of the Southern prison-pens. The circular contained a 
verbatim statement by an escaped prisoner of his treatment by the 
rebels. After a few burning words, General Garfield concluded : 
" We can not believe that the justice of God will allow such a 
people to prosper. Let every soldier know that death on the 
battle-field is preferable to a surrender followed by such outrages 
as their comrades have undergone." 

Every word of the circular was true. The time may come, 
when the South will be forgiven for fighting for principles which 
it believed to be right. The time may come when the sorrows of 
the North and South will become alike the sorrows of each other, 
over the ruin wrought by human folly. The right hand of fellow- 
ship will be extended. The Southern people, as a people, may be 
relieved of the fearful charge of the assassination of Abraham Lin-i 
coin, and posterity may come to look at it as the infernal offspring 
of a few hell-born hearts. The day is upon us when much of 
this is already true. But the men who directly or indirectly 
caused or countenanced the starvation, the torture, the poisoned 
and rotten food, the abandonment to loathsome disease, the crowd- 
ing of thousands of Union prisoners into stockades, opening only 



HEEO AND GENEEAL.—" A COPPERHEAD." 127 K 

heavenward, and all the other unparalleled atrocities of the South- 
ern prisons, atrocities that violated every rule of warfare; atroci- 
ties to find the equals of which the history of barbarous and 
savaj^c nations, witliout the light of religion, or the smile of civ- 
iliication, will be ransacked in vain, shall be handed down to an 
eternity of inflimy. They shall take rank with the Caligulas, the 
Neros, the inquisitors, all the historic monsters in human form, 
whose names and natures are the common dishonor and disgrace 
of mankind. 

About this time there appeared in Rosccrans's camp, with droop- 
ing feathers, but brazen face, the thing which patriotism denomin- 
ated " a copperhead." He was a northern citizen by the name of 
Yalhindigham, from Garfield's own State, who had been ostra- 
cised by his neighbors for his treason, and compelled to leave the 
community of patriots to seek congenial company within the rebel 
lines. He was to have an escort to the enemy's camp. A squad 
waited outside to perform this touching task, under the cover of 
a flag of truce. Yallandigham, who had the mind, if not the 
heart, of a man, in forced jocularity dramatically spoke the lines 
from Romeo and Juliet — 

" Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day 

Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops." 

Quick as thought Garfield completed the quotation — 
" 1 must begone and live, or stay and die." 

The joke was funny to every one but Yallandigham, but he 
was the only man in the room who laughed aloud. 

A little later President Hinsdale wrote to General Garfield about 
the treasonable views of some copperhead students at Hiram. 
Above all things Garfield detested a foe in the rear. He respected 
a man who avouched his principles on the crimsoned field, but a 
traitor, a coward, was to his candid nature despicable beyond lan- 
guage. His letter in reply is characteristic : 

" Head-Quarters Department of the CuAtBERT.ANn, ) 
:Mcufueksboro, May 2(), ISflo. j 

•' Tell all those copperhead students for me that, were I there in cliarge 
of the school, I would nut only dishonorably disniiss them from the 



jC 128 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

scliool, but, if they remained in the place and persisted in their cowardly 
treason, I would apply to General Burnside to enforce General Order Xo. 
38 in their cases. ... 

" If these young traitors are in earnest they should go to the Southern 
Confederacy, where they can receive full sympathy. Tell them all that 
I will furnish them passes through our lines, Avhere they can join Vallan. 
dighajn and their other friends till such time as they can destroy us, and 
come back home as conquerors of their own people, or can learn wisdom 
and obedience. 

" I know this apparently is a small matter, but it is only apparently 
small. We do not know what the developments of a month may bring 
forth, and, if such things be permitted at Hiram, they may anywhere. 
The reliels catch up all such facts as sweet morsels of comf )rr, and every 
such influence lengthens the war and adds to the bloodshed." 

It was about the same tiroe the above letter was written that a 
letter was brought to Rosecraiis's head-quarters, detailing an exten- 
sive plan for a universal insurrection of the slaves throughout the 
South. The rising was to take place August 1st. The slaves 
were to arm themselves with whatever they could get, and their 
especial work was to cut off the supplies of the rebel forces. "An 
army is dependent on its belly," said Napoleon. To destroy, the 
bridges and railroads within the Confederacy would swiftly under- 
mine the rebel armies, v>-hose rations and ammunition came along 
those routes, With the universal cooperation of the Union forces, 
it was thought the Rebellion might be crushed. To secure the 
cooperation of Rosecrans was the apparent object of the letter. 
General Garfield talked it over with his chief, and denounced the 
plan in the most unmeasured terms. He ^aid that if the slaves 
wanted to revolt that was one thing. But iox the Union army to 
violate the rule's of warfare by encouraging and combining with a 
war upon non-combatants was not to be thought of. The colored 
people would have committed every excess upon the innocent 
women and children of the South. The unfortunate country would 
not only be overrun with war, but with riot. Rosecrans resolved 
to have nothing to do with it. But Garfield still was not satisfied. 
The letter said that several commanders had already given their 



IIEKO AND C;ENEKAL.— OIIGANIZES AEMY POLICE. 129 

assent. He sent the letter to President Lincoln with a statement 
of the results which Avould follow such irregular warfare. A letter 
of Garfield, written on the sulyect, says: 

" 1 am clcHrly of opinion that the negro project is in every way had, and 
should he repudiated, and, if possible, tliwarted. If the slaves should, 
of their own accord, rise and assert their original right to themselves, and 
cut their way through rehcldoni, that is their own aflair; but the Gov- 
ernment could have no complicity with it without outraging the sense of 
justice of the civilized world. We would create great sympathy for the 
rebels abroad, and Go<l knows they have too much already." 

Lincoln gave the matter his attention, and the slave revolt 
never took place in any magnitude. It was an ambitious scheme 
on paper, and yet was not utterly impracticable. It was a thing 
to be crushed in its infancy, and Garfield's action was the projjcr 
way to do it. 

While Garfield was with Roseeraus, he was addressed by some 
prominent Northerners upon the subject of running Rosecrans for 
the Presidency. Greeley and many leading Republicans were dis- 
satisfied with Lincoln in 1862-'63, and wanted to work up another 
candidate for the campaign of '64. Attracted by Rosecrans's suc- 
cesses, they put the plan on foot by opening communication with 
Garfield, in whom they had great confidence, upon the feasibility 
of defeating Mr. Lincoln in the convention, with Rosecrans. Gar- 
field, however, put his foot on the whole ambitious scheme. He 
said that no man on earth could equal Lincoln in that trying hour. 
To take Rosecrans was to destroy both a wonderful President and 
an excellent soldier. So effectually did he smother the plan, that 
it is said Rosecrans never heard a whisper of it. 

A most imjwrtant work of General Garfield, as chief of staff, 
was his attack uj)on the corrupting vice of smuggling, and his dc^ 
fense of the army ]ioIice. When an army is in an active cam- 
paign, marching, fighting, and fortifying, there is but little corrujv 
tion developed. Rut in a large volunteer array, with its necessarily 
lax discipline wiu'u lying idle for a long time, its quarters become 
infested with all the smaller vices. The men are of cverv sort; 



130 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

and, as soon as they are idle, their heads get full of mischief. 
The Army of the Cumberland, during its long inactivity at Mur- 
freesboro, soon began to suffer. The citizens were hostile, and 
had but two objects — one to serve the Confederacy, the other to 
make money for themselves. They thus all became spies and 
smugglers. Smuggling was the great army vice. The profits of 
cotton, smuggled contraband through the Union lines to the North, 
and of medicines, arms, leather, whisky, and a thousand North- 
ern manufactures, through to the South, were simply incalculable. 
Bribery was the most effective, but not the only ^vay of smuggling 
articles through the lines. The Southern women, famous the world 
over for their beauty and their captivating and jxissionate manners, 
would entangle the officers in their meshes in order to extort 
favors. To break up this smuggling, and get fresh information 
of any plots or pitfalls for the Union army, a system of army 
police had been organized at Nashville and Murfreesboro, This 
was in a fair state of efficiency when Garfield was appointed chief 
of staff. To improve it and make its work more available, Gen- 
eral Garfield founded a bureau of military iulbrmation, with Gen- 
eral D, G. Swaim for its head. For efficiency, it was never again 
equaled or approached during the war. Shortly after the estab- 
lishment of this bureau of information, a determined attack was 
made on the whole institution, " It marshaled its friends and 
enemies in almost regimental numbers. Even in the army it has 
been violently assailed, not only by the vicious in the ranks, but 
by officers whose evil deeds were not past finding out." Tlie 
accusations which were laid before Garfield were always investi- 
gated immediately, and always to the vindication of the police 
department. A special officer was at last detailed to investigate 
the entire department. His report of the wonderful achievements 
of the army police is monumental. Garfield was inexorable. 
Every officer guilty of smuggling had to come down, no matter 
how prominent he was. The chief of staff set his face like 
brass against the corruptions. The opportunities open to him for 
wealth were immense. All that was necessary fi)r him to do was 
to wink at the smuggling. He had absolute power in the matter. 



IIEEO AND GENERAL.— AT MIJEFREESLORO. 131 

But he fought the evil to its grave. He broke up stealing among 
the men. He established a system of regular reports from spies 
on the enemy. His police furnished him with the political status 
of every family in that section of the State. He knew just the 
temper of Bragg's troojxs, and had a fair idea of their number. 
He knew just what corn was selling at ia the enemy's lines. 
Located in a hostile countrv, honeycombed with a system of rebel 
spies, he outspied the enemy, putting spies to watch its spies. In 
every public capacity, civil or military, virtue is more rare and 
more necessary than genius. General Garfield's incorruptible 
character alone saved the army police from destruction, and re- 
stored the Army of the Cumberland to order and honesty. He 
had, long before entering the army, shown wonderful ability for 
using assistants to accumulate facts for him. The police institu- 
tion was an outcropping of the same thing. No commander dur- 
ing the war had more exact and detailed information of the enemy 
than Garfield had at this time. 

When General Garfield reached the Army of the Cumberland, 
it was in a shattered and exhausted condition. It had no cavalry, 
the arms were inferior, and the terrible pounding at Stone River 
had greatly weakened it. General Rosecrans insisted on its recu- 
peration and reinforcement before making another advance. The 
Department at Washington and Halleck, Commander-in-chief of 
the Union forces, were of the opinion that an advance should be 
made. Rosecrans, though possessing some high military skill, wa.s 
sensitive, headstrong, absorbed in details, and violent of speech. 
He demanded cavalry, horses, arms, cfpiipments. Dispatch after 
dispatch came insisting on an advance. Sharper and sharper 
became the replies. Garfield undertook to soften the venomous 
correspondence. Angry messages were sometimes suppressed alto- 
gether. But he could not control the wrathy connnander. Rose- 
crans held a different, and, as it turned out, an erroneous theory 
of the best military policy. At first, Garfield's views harmoni/ed 
with those of his superior; but, as the month of April passed 
Avithout movement, as his secret service informed hiui of the con- 
dition and situation of the enemy, he joined his own urgent ad- 



132 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

vice to that of the Department f<>r an advance. Rosccrans was 
immovable. The array of G0,000 men had been in quarters at 
Murfreesboro since January 0th without striking a blow at the 
rebellion. The month of May, with its opening flowers, its fra- 
grant breezes and blue skies, came and went without a move. 
General Garfield was sick at heart, but he could do nothing. The 
more Ilosecrans was talked to, the more obstinate he became. 
Garfield had certain information that Bragg's army had been 
divided by sending reinforcements to Richmond, but nobody be- 
lieved it. Besides, Rosecrans was supported in his jwsition by all 
the generals of his army. Two of these were incompetent — Crit- 
tenden and McCook. They had behaved shamefully at Stone 
River. General Garfield urged their removal, and the substitu- 
tion of McDowell and Buell. Rosecrans admitted their ineffi- 
ciency, but said he hated to injure " two such good fellows." He 
kept them till the " good fellows " injured him. 

At last, on the 8th of June, 1863, Rosecrans, yielding some- 
what to the pressure without, and still more to the persuasion of 
his chief of staflp, laid the situation before the seventeen corps, 
division and cavalry generals of his army, and requested a writ- 
ten opinion from each one upon the advisability of an advance. 
It is to be remembered that among the seventeen generals were 
Thomas, Sheridan, Neglcy, Jeff. C. Davis, Hazen and Granger. 
Each of these studied the situation, and presented a written in- 
dividual opinion. With astonishinr/ unanimity, every one of the 
seventeen opposed an advance. Rosccrans read the opinions. They 
coincided with his own. But there was a man of genius at his 
side. Garfield, his confidential adviser, looked at the opinions of 
the generals in utter dismay. He saw that a crisis had arrived. 
The Department of War peremptorily demanded an advance; and 
to let the vast army, with its then excellent equipment, lie idle 
longer, meant not only the speedy removal of Rosecrans from 
command, but the greatest danger to the Union cause. He asked 
Rosecrans time to prepare a written reply to the opinions opposing 
an advance. Permission was given, though Rosecrans told him it 
^\-ould be wasted work. Collecting all his powers, he began his 



IIEKO AND GENERAL.-UEGES AX ADVANCE. 133 

task. Four davs and nights itoccupied liini. At the end of tliattimo, 
on June 12th, ho presented to Rosecrans the ablest opinion known 
to have boon given to a commanding officer by his chief of staif (hii-- 
ing the entire war. Thepapcr began with a statement'of the <pies- 
tions to be discussed. Next it contained, in tabuhited form, the opin- 
ions of the generaL? upon eacli question. . Then foHowed a swift 
summary of the reasons presented in the seventeen 0})inions against 
the advance. Then began the answer. He presented an elaborate 
estimate of the strength of B]-agg's army, probably far more accurate 
aud c(miplete thau the rebel general had himself. It was made up 
from the (•tlicial report of Bragg after the battle of Stone River, 
from facts obtiiined from prisoners, deserters, refugees, rebel news- 
papers, and, above all, from the reports of his army police. The 
argument showed a perfect knowledge of the rules of organization 
of the Confederate army. The mass of proofs accompanying the 
opinion was overwhelming. Then followed a summary and anal- 
ysis of the Army of the Cumberland. Summing up the relative 
.strength of the two armies, he says, after leaving a strong gai-ri- 
sou force at Murfreesboro, " there will be left sixty-five thousand 
one hundred and thirtv-scven bavonets aud sabers to thro\v arainst 
Bragg's forty-one thousand six hundred and eighty." 
He concludes with the following general observations: 

" 1. Bragg's army is now weaker tliau it has l^ecn since the battle of 
Stone River, or is likely io be again for the prt^sent, while our army lias 
reached its maximum strength, aud we have no right to expect reiuforee- 
meuts for several mouths, if at all. 

" 2. Whatever he the result at Vicksburg, the determination of its' fate 
will give large remforcenients to Bmgg. If Grant is successful, his army 
will require many weeks to recover from the shock and strain of liis late 
campaign, while Johnston will send back to Bragg a force snihcient to 
insure the giifety of Tennessee. If Grant fails, the same result will in- 
evitably follow, so far as Bragg's army is concerned. 

" 3. No man can predict with certainty the result of any battle, how- 
ever great the disparity in numbers. Such results are in the hands of 
God. But, viewing the question in the light of human calculation, I 
refuse to entertain a doubt that this army, which in January last dc- 



1-^^ LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

fcated Bragg's superior numbers, can overwhelm his present greatly 
inferior forces. 

"4. The most unfavorable course for us that Bragg could take would 
be to fall back without giving us battle ; but this wouhl be very disas- 
trous to him. Besides, the loss of materiel of war and the abandonment 
of the rich and abundant harvest now nearly ripe in Middle Tennessee, 
he Avould lose heavily by desertion. It is well known that a widespread 
dissatisfaction exists among his Kentucky and Tennessee troops. They 
are already deserting in large numbers. A retreat would greatly in- 
crease both the desire and the opportunity for desertion, and would very 
materially reduce his physical and moral strength. While it would 
lengthen our communications, it would give us possession of McMinnville, 
and enable us to threaten Chattiinooga and East Tennessee ; and it would 
not be unreasonable to expect an early occupation of the former place. 

"5. But the chances are more than even that a sudden and rapid move- 
ment would compel a general engagement, and the defeat of Bragg would 
be in the highest degree disastrous to the rebellion. 

" 6. The turbulent aspect of politics in the loyal States renders a de- 
cisive blow against the enemy at this time of the highest importance to 
the success of the Govei-nment at the polls, and in the enforcement of the 
conscription act. 

" 7. The Government and the War Department believe that this army 
ought to move upon the enemy. The army desires it, and the country 
is anxiously hoping for it. 

"8. Our true objective point is the rebel army, Avhose last reserves 
are substantially in the fiehl ; and an effective blow will crush tlie shell, 
and soon be followed by the collapse of the rebel government. 

" 9. You have, in my judgTiient, wiseljr delayed a general movement 
hitherto, till your army could be massed and your cavalry could be 
mounted. Your mobile force can now be concentrated in twentv-four 
hours ; and your cavalry, if not equal in numerical strength to that of 
the enemy, is greatly superior in efficiency. For these reasons I believe 
an immediate advance of all our available forces is advisable, and, under 
the providence of God, will be successful." 

Rosecrans read the opinion, examined the proofs, and was con- 
vinced. " Garfield," said he, " you have captured mc, but how 
shall the advance be made?" 

The situation was about as follows : Imas^ine an isosceles trianslo. 



IIEEO AND GENEEAL.— POSITION OF BRAGG'S ARMY. 135 

with its apex to the north at Murfrccsboro. Here the Army of 
the Cuniberhiud was situated. The base of the triangle was about 
lifty miles long, and constituted the enemy's front, with its right 
terminating at McMinnville, the south-east corner of the triangle, 
and its left at Columbia, the south-west corner of the figure. At 
the middle of the base was the village of Wartrace ; and almost 
due west of Wartrace, but a little below the base of the triangle, 
was Shelbyville, where the enemy's center was situated, behind 
massive fortifications. Between Shelbyville and Wartrace was 
massed the enemy's infimtry, the extreme wings being composed 
of cavalry. At a little distance north of the enemy's front, and 
forming the base of the triangle, was a " range of hills, rough and 
rocky, through whose depressions, called gaps, the main roads to 
the South passed. These gaps were held by strong detachments 
Avith heavy columns within supporting distance." Any one can 
see the enormous strength of the enemy's position for defense. But 
it had still other sources of strength. Behind the enemy's left and 
center was Duck River, a deep torrent, with tremendous banks. 
If they were pressed in front, the rebel array could fall back south 
of the river, burn the bridges, and gain ample time for retreat to 
the lofty range of the Cumberland Mountains, which were onlv a 
day's march to the rear. On a direct line with Murfreesboro and 
Wartrace, and at the same distance south of Wartrace, as ^Mur- 
freesboro was north of it, was Tullahoma, the depot of the enemy's 
supplies, and hence the key to the situation. Posted in this almost 
impregnable situation, Bragg's array was the master of Central Ten- 
nessee. It is evident that the campaign, which Garfield so power- 
fully urged, was a great undertaking. The narrow mountain gaps 
heavily fortified; behind the range of hills the great body of the 
rebel army intrenched in hc^vy fortifications; behind them the 
natural defense of Duck River, and still to the south, the Cumber- 
land Mountains, formed an aggregation of obstacles almost insu- 
perable. The plan of the campaign which followed must, in military 
history, be accredited to Rosecrans, because he was the General in 
command; \n\t biography cares not for military custom, and names 
its author and originator the chief of staff. The reason Garfield 



138 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

urged (lie advance, was that he had a plan, the merits of which we 
will examine hereafter, by which he was convinced it might be 
successfully made. 

There were substantially three ways by which the Union army 
might advance: one lay along the west side of the triangle to 
Columbia, there attacking the enemy's left wing; another to march 
directly south to Shelby ville, and fall upon the enemy's center ; a ■ 

third, to advance by two roads, cutting the base of the triangle .f 

about midway between the enemy's center and extreme right. A 
fourth route was possible, along the eastern side of the triangle to 
AlcMinnville ; but if the enemy's right was to be attacked, the 
Jklanchester roads were every way preferable, as being more direct. 
General Garfield's selection was the third route. His plan was to 
throw a heavy force forward on the road to Shelbyville, as if-^- 
k'nding to attack the rebel center. Then, under cover of this feint, 
swiftly throw the bulk of the army upon the enemy's right, turn 
the flank, cross Duck River, and march swiftly to the enemy's 
rear, threatening his supplies, thus compelling Bragg to fall back 
from his tremendous stronghold at Shelbyville, and either give 
battle in the open country or abandon the entire region. 

On the 23d of June the movement was begun by the advance of 
General Granger's division toward Shelbvville. At the same time 
a demonstration was made toward the enemy's left, to create the 
belief that feints were being made to distract the enemy's atten- 
tion from what would be supposed the main attack on Shelbyville. 
Meanwhile the bulk of the army was advanced along the two roads 
leading to the middle of the enemy's right — the east road leading 
through Liberty Gap, and the west through Hoover's Gap, a defile 
three miles long. On the twenty-fourth a terrible rain began, 
continuing day and night, for over a week. It rendered the 
wretched roads almost impassable, and terribly increased the diffi- 
culties of the army. The artillery sunk hub-deep in the almost 
bottomless mire. Great teams of twelve and fourteen powerful 
horses "stalled" with small field-pieces. Never a minute did the 
rain let up. The men's clothing was so drenched that it was 'not 
dry for two weeks. The army wagons, hundreds in number. 



HERO AND GENEEAL.— THE TULLAHOMA CAMPAIGN. 137 

carrying the precious bacon and luircl-tack, stuck fast on the roads. 
So fearful was the mire that on one day the army only advanced 
a mile and a-half. 

But the advance was pushed as rapidly as possible. Liberty 
Gap and Hoover's were both captured. The demonstrations on 
the enemy's left and center were kept up with great vigor. Bragg 
was wholly deceived by the numerous points of attack. On the 
twenty-seventh the entire array was concentrated, and j/assed 
rapidly through Hoover's Gap, and on to Manchester. While the 
army was concentrating at Manchester, General Thomas, on the 
twenty-eighth, began the final move in the game — the advance 
upon TuUahoma. Bragg had retreated from Shelbyville, owing to 
the danger which threatened his supplies. On the twenty-ninth 
he evacuated Tullalioraa for the same reason. An attempt was 
made to intercept his retreat and force him to battle. But the 
terrible condition of the roads and rivers rendered the effort futile. 
Brae:2: crossed the Cumberland Mountains, and Central Tennessee 
was once more in the hands of the Union army. Had the 
TuUahoma campaign been begun a week earlier, before the rains 
set in, Bragg's army would inevitably have been destroyed. The 
rebel array, of 50,000 veterans, had been driven from a natural 
stronghold of the most formidable character ; and had lost all the 
fruits of a year's victories by a single campaign of nine days, con- 
ducted in one of the most extraordinary rains ever known in 
Tennessee. There were 1,700 rebel prisoners taken, several parks 
of artillery, and an enormous amount of Confederate army stores 
at TuUahoma. This campaign and its victory was not the result of 
battle, but of pure strategy, confessedly the highest art in war. 

As to whom the credit of the plan of the campaign belonged, 
there could be no question. As we have shown, it is impossible 
to separate the double star of Garfield and Rosccrans by military 
etiquette. But aside from the facts that the campaign was begun 
as a result of Garfield's argument, in the face of unanimous oppo- 
sition, the following fact is conclusive as to whom belongs the 
glory. On the morning of the twenty-third, when the movement 
was begun, General Thomas L. Crittenden, one of the corps 



138 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

commanders, went to head-quarters and said to General Garfield : 
" It is understood, sir, by the general ojfficers of the army that this 
moremcnt is your work. I icish you to understand tJiat it is a rash 
and fatal inove, for which you vnll be held resjjonsible." 

The lips of an enemy are now made to bear unwilling testimony 
to the glory and the credit of the chief of staff. In his report to 
the War Department, just as this campaign was getting started. 
General Rosecrans says: "I hope it will not be considered invid- 
ious if I specially mention Brigadier-General James A. Garfield, 
an able soldier, zealous, devoted to duty, prudent and sagacious. 
I feel much indebted to him both for his counsel and assistance 
in the administration of this array. He possesses the instincts and 
enero^v of a great commander." 

Historians are unanimous in their opinion that the Tullahoma 
campaign was one of the most masterly exhibitions of. strategic 
genius possible to the commander of a great army. Mahan, au- 
thor of the Critical History of the Civil War, Avho is ever ready to 
attack and expose the blunders of the Union generals, declares 
that this Tullahoma campaign shows " as skillful combinations as 
the history of war presents.^' 

But the Tullahoma campaign was not the conclusion of the ad- 
vance which General Garfield had so persistently urged, and the 
success of which had been so triumphantly demonstrated. An im- 
portant line of defense had been broken through ; an enormous piece 
of territory had been captured. But Bragg still held Chattanooga, 
which was the objective point of the Army of the Cumberland. 
In his argument of June 12, to induce an advance, Garfield had 
said: "While it would lengthen our communications, it would 
give us possession of McMinnville, and enable us to threaten C^ud- 
tanooga and East Tennessee; and it would not be unreasonable to 
expect an early occupation of the former place. ^' It is yet to be 
seen what fulfillment there was of this prophecy. 

After the Tullahoma victory, and Bragg's retreat behind the 
Tennessee River, Rosecrans stopped. Again, the A¥ar Department 
ordered an advance. Again, the commander-in-chief refused. 
Again, Garfield urged that no delay take place. Rosecrans was 



HERO AND GENERAL.— EOSECEANS'S ADVANCE. 139 

immovable. The Department waited ; the army waited ; the coun- 
tr^■ waited. At last the following dispatch was received : 

" Washington, August 5, 18G3. 
" The orders for the advance of your army, and thut its progress be re- 
ported daily, are peremptory. H. \V. IIalleck." 

The thing required was stupendous, but the results show it was 
not impossible. Sixty miles from the Union army was the Ten- 
nessee River and Cumberland Mountains. Both run from north- 
east to south-west. There arc in these lofty mountain ranges 
occasional gaps, through which the great east and west traffic of 
the country takes place. Chattanooga, in 1863 a town of fifteen 
hitndred inhabitants, is in the most important of these gaps — the 
one tlirough which passes the Tennessee River and an important 
net- work of railroads. The town is right in the mountains, twenty- 
five hundred feet above the sea-level, and was strongly fortified, and 
practically impregnable to assault. Along the north-west front of 
the town runs the river, which would have to be crossed by the 
Union forces. On the southern side of the river, below Chatta- 
nooga, are three parallel ranges: Sand Mountain, Lookout Mount- 
ain, and Pigeon Ridge, — the valleys between the ridges running 
up to the gap at Chattanooga. North-east of the town the ridges 
begin again, and the general configuration of the country is sim- 
ilar. Chattanooga was south-east from where the Union army Avas 
situated. The town was the lock, and Bragg's army the key, to 
the door to Georgia, Virginia, and the Carolinas. To unlock this 
door was the -task before the Army of the Cumberland. 

But the problem of Rosecrans's advance contained other com- 
plications beside the deep river, the lofty mountains, and the heavy 
fortifications. His army had to- depend for its supplies upon Louis- 
ville, Kentucky, and the slender line of railway fi^om that phice. 
Every advance necessitated the weakening of his army "by leaving 
strong detachments to preserve this communication; while, on 
the other hand, Bragg, already reinforced, would grow stronger all 
the time as he fell back on his reserves. 

It is reasonable to suppose that the reason Garfield had urged 



140 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

the advance toward Chattanooga was that he saw a way in which it 
couhl be made. When the peremptory order came, a plan for the 
advance was projected, which, though vaster and more complicated 
than that of the Tullahoma campaign, contains the same elements, 
and shows itself to have been the work of the same mind. It was, 
indeed, a continuation of the same campaign. The plan was liose- 
crans's, because he adopted it. It was Garfield's, because he origin- 
ated it. The theory of the advance was to pass the enemy's flank, 
march to his rear, threaten his line of supplies and compel him, 
by military strategy, to evacuate Chattanooga, as he had Shelby- 
ville and Tullahoma. The door would thus be unlocked, and 
Bragg's army driven from its last fortification to the open country. 
The details of the plan, as prepared by Garfield, will appear as the 
advance is explained. On August 16th began the movement of 
the army across the mountains toward the Tennessee River. The 
paramount effort in the manner of the advance was to deceive the 
enemy as to the real intention. 

The army made the movement along three separate routes. 
Crittenden's corps, forming the left, was to advance by a circuitous 
route, to a point about fifteen miles south-west of Chattanooga, and 
make his crossing of the Tennessee River there. Thomas, as our 
center, was to cross a little farther down stream, and McCook, 
thirty miles farther to the right. These real movements were to 
be made under the cover of an apparent one. About seven thou- 
sand men marched directly to the river shore, opposite Chattanooga, 
as if a direct attack were to be made on the place. " The extent 
of front presented, the show of strength, the vigorou-s shelling of 
the city by Wilder's artillery, the bold expression of the whole 
movement, constituted a brilliant feint." Bragg was deceived again. 
Absorbed in the operations in front of the place, he offered no re- 
sistance to the crossing of the Tennessee River by the main army. 
By September 3d, the Union forces were all on the southern side 
of the Tennessee. Sand Mountain, the first of the ridges on that 
side of the river, rises abruptly from the bank. The repair and con- 
struction of roads occupied a little time ; but Thomas and McCook 
pushed forward vigorously, and by the evening of the 6th of Sep- 



HERO AND GENERAL.— CAPTURE OF CHATTAXOOGA. 141 

tembcr had crossed Saud Mountain, and occupied the valley be- 
tween it and the Lookout Range. Each of these corps had 
crossed the range at points opposite their crossings of the river, 
and, though in the same valley, were thirty-five miles apart, 
Crittenden, instead of crossing, turned to his left, and marched 
up the river bank toward Chattanooga, and crossed into the Look- 
out Valley by a pass near the town. On the 7th the next stage of 
the movement began, viz : the crossing of Lookout Range, in order 
to pass to the enemy's rear, and, by endangering his supplies, com- 
pel him to abandon Chattanooga. 

As soon as Bragg's spy-glasses on Lookout Mountain, at Chat- 
tanooga, disclosed this movement, the order to evacuate the place 
was given. Shelbyville and TuUahoma were repeated, and on the 
morning of September f)th Crittenden marched in and took the 
place without the discharge of a gun. Strategy had again tri- 
umphed. The door was unlocked. The fall of Chattanooga was 
accomplished. The plan of the campaign had been carried out 
successfullv. The North was electrified. The South utterlvdis- 
comfited. Of the fall of Chattanooga, which, as we have shown, 
was but the continuation of the plan of the Tullahoma camjiaign, 
and was predicted by Garfield, even to the manner of its accom- 
plishment, in his argument to Rosecrans in favor of an advance, 
Pollard, the Confederate historian, writes : 

" Thus we were maneuvered out of this strategic stronghold. 
Two-thirds of our niter beds were in this region, and a largo pro- 
portion of the coal which supplied our foundries. It abounded in 
the necessaries of life. It was one of the strongest mountain 
countries in the world ; so full of lofty mountains that it has been 
not inaptly called the Switzerland of America. As the possession 
of Switzerland opened the door to the invasion of Italy, Germany, 
and France, so the possession of East Tennessee gave easy access 
to Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama." 

It is easy to see that behind this masterly strategy there was 
a masterly strategist. That man was Rosecrans's chief of staiT. 

"What had become of Brag<:;'s armv of fiftv thousand men? 
Rosecrans thought it was in full retreat, llalleck, Commander- 



142 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

in-chief, telegraphed from Washington, on the lltli, that infor- 
mation had been received that Bragg^s army was being used to re- 
inforce Lee, a certain indication of retreat. The fact was that Lee 
was reinforcing Bragg. Hallcck also telegraphed on the same 
day that reinforcements were coming to Rosecrans, and that it 
would be decided whether he should move further into Georgia 
and Alabama. This telegram completed the delusion of Rose- 
crans. He believed Bragg was many miles to the south. The 
campaign planned by Garfield had been completed. But Rose- 
crans made a fatal blunder. Instead of marching the corps of 
Thomas and McCook up the Lookout Valley to Chattanooga, and 
uniting them with Crittenden's, he ordered the crossing of the 
range as a flank raovemcnt to be continued in order to intercept 
Bragg's supposed retreat. Accordingly, on the 11th and r2th, 
Thomas recommenced to push over Lookout Mountain through a 
pass, twenty-five miles south-east of Chattanooga; and thirty-five 
miles beyond Thomas, McCook was doing the same thing. 

AVith the Union army thus divided, Bragg was waiting his ter- 
rible opportunity. Instead of being in full retreat, many miles 
away, his entire array occupied Pigeon Ridge along the valley on the 
southern side of Lookout Range, into which Thomas and McCook 
must descend from the Mountain passes. Down the center of this 
vallev runs a little river, the CmcKAMArGA. On the southern 
side of this stream, just opposite the pass from which Thomas's 
corps of eighteen thousand devoted men would emerge, was con- 
centrated the entire rebel army, waiting to destroy the isolated 
parts of the Army of the Cumberland in detail. The region oc- 
cupied by Bragg was covered with dense forests, and he was 
farther concealed by the low heights of Pigeon Ridge. When 
Thomas's corps should have debouched from the pass through 
Lookout Range, and crossed the Chickamauga to ascend Pigeon 
Ridge, it v.as to be overwhelmed. Then McCook and Crittenden, 
sixty-five miles apart, would be separately destroyed. It fortu- 
nately happened that General Negley's division descended from 
the gap on the 12th, and crossed the Chickamauga several miles 
in advance of the main body of Thomas's corps. Unexpectedly, 



HERO AND GENERAL.-A CRISIS. 143 

finding the enemy in great force on the opposite ridge, he swiftly 
witluh-ew, checked Thomas from further advance, and enabled the 
corps to take up . an impregnable position in the gap through 
Lookout Range. 

Thus foiled, Bragg then resolved to strike Crittenden, but 
eventually foiled in this also. These failures gave the alarm. 
Bragg's army Avas not ready for flight but for fight. It was now 
a matter of life and death for Rosecrans to concentrate his army 
before battle. Couriers were dispatched at break-neck speed to 
McCook, sixty-five miles away, and to Crittenden who had pushed 
on tw^cnty miles beyond Chattanooga, in imaginary pursuit of 
Biagg. in some absolutely inexplicable way, Bragg failed for 
four days to make the attack. In those precious days, from Sep- 
tember 13th to 17th, Garfield worked night and day, as chief of 
staif, to reach the scattered divisions, explore the ^ shortest roads 
through those lofty mountains, and hasten that combination which 
alone could save the army from destruction. The susj>ense was 
terrible. But Bragg lost his opportunity by delaying too long. 
Heavv reinforcements for him were arriving, and he thought he 
was growing stronger. On the 17th and 18th Bragg was found to 
be moving his army up the valley toward Chattanooga, thus ex- 
tending his right far beyond Rosecrans's left, with the evident object 
of throwing his army upon the roads between the Union army and 
Chattanooga. To meet this, the Union army was moved in the 
same direction. - 

These movements of both armies up the valley, Bragg being 
south of the Chickamauga and Rosecrans north, were continued 
until the position was almost soutli of Chattanooga, instead of 
south-west. Parallel with our army, and immediately in its rear, 
were two roads leading to Chattanooga, — the one immediately in 
the rear known as the Lafayette or Rossville road; the other a 
little further back, as the Dry Valley road. At tho junction of 
these roads, half way to Chattanooga, itself eight miles distant, was 
the town of Rossville. These roads were the prizes for which was 
to be fought one of the most bloody and awful battles of th:' war. 
The loss of cither was equally fatal, but the main Rossville road, 



144 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

being the most exposed, was the principal object of the enemy's 
citacks. The efforts of the enemy at first were to overlap or turn 
the left flank. This would have given them the Rossville road. 
Failino- in this thev drove the center back, the center and left 
turning like a door upon the hinge at the extreme left, until the 
line of battle was formed directly across the roads instead of par- 
allel with them. This was accomplished during the second day's 
fight. 

General Thomas commanded the left wing, Crittenden the cen- 
ter, and McCook the right. The front of the army, facing almost 
east, was ranged up and down the valley from north to south, with 
the river in front and the roads in their rear. The whole valley 
was covered with dense forests, except where a flirm had been 
made, and was full of rocky hills and ridges. So much concealed 
was one part of the valley from another, that the rebel army of 
fiftv thousand men was formed in line of battle within a mile of 
the union lines on the same side of the river, without either army 
suspecting the other's presence. 

Such was the situation on the morning of September 19th, 1863. 
The world knows of the awful conflict which followed. General 
Garfield was located at Widow Glenn's house, in the rear of the 
right wing. This was Rosecrans's head-quarters. General Thomas 
located himself at Kelley's farm-house in the rear of the left wing. 
For three nights General Garfield had not slept as many hours. 
Every anxious order, for the concentration of the army, had 
come from him; every courier and aid during those days and 
nights of suspense reported to him in person; before him lay his 
maps; each moment since the thirteenth he had known the exact 
position of the different corps and divisions of our vast army. 
Looking for the attack at any moment, it was necessary to con- 
stantly know the situation of the enemy among those gloomy mount- 
ains and sunless forests. When the red tide of battle rolled 
through the valley, each part of the line was ignorant of all the 
rest of the line. The right wing could not even guess the direc- 
tion of the left wing. The surrounding forests and the hills shut 
in the center so completely that it did not know where either of 



HERO AND GENERAL.— CIIICKAMAUGA. 145 

the wings were. Every division commander simply obeyed the 
orders from head-quarters, took his position, and fought. The 
line of battle was formed in the night. To misunderstand orders 
and take the wrong position was easy. But so lucid were the com- 
niands, so particular the explanations which came from the man 
at head-quarters, that the line of battle was perfect. Many battles 
of the war were fought with but few orders from head-quarters; 
some without any concerted plan at all. Pittsburgh Landing, of 
the latter sort ; Gettysburg, of the former sort. At Gettysburg, 
the commander-in-chief, General Meade, had little to do with the 
battle. The country was open, the enemy's whereabouts was vis- 
ible, and each division commander placed his troops just where they 
could do the most good. Not so at Chickamauga. 'No battle of 
the war required so many and such incessant orders from head- 
quarters. The only man in the Union army who knew the whole 
situation of our troops was General .Garfield. Amid the forests, 
ravines and hills along the five miles of battle front, the only 
possible way to maintain a unity of plan and a concert of action 
was for the man at head-quarters to know it all. General Gar- 
field knew the entire situation as if it had been a chess-board, and 
each division of the army a man. At a touch, by the player, the 
various brigades and divisions assumed their positions. 

Every thing thus far said has been of the combatants. But there 
were others on the battle-field. There were the inhabitants of 
this valley, non-combatants, inviolate by the rules of civilized Avar- 
fare. Of this sort were the- rustic people at Widow Glenn's, where 
General Garfield passed the most memorable days of his life. The 
house was a Tennessee cabin. Around it lay a little farm with 
small clearings. Here the widow lived with her three children, 
one a young man, the others a girl and boy of tender age. As 
General Garfield took up his head-quarters there it is said to have 
reminded him powerfully of his own childhood home with his 
toiling mother. All the life of these children had been passed in 
this quiet valley. Of the outside world they knew little, and cared 
less. They did not know the meaning of the word war. They 
were ignorant and poverty-stricken, but peaceful. Shut in by the 



H 



146 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

mountains of ignorance, as well as the lofty ranges along the valley, 
they had known no event more startling than the flight of birds 
through the air or the rustle of the wind through the forest. The 
soil was rocky and barren like their minds; yet, unvisited by ca- 
lamity, they were happy. 

But suddenly this quiet life was broken into. The forests were 
filled with armed men. The cabin was taken possession of by the 
officers. A sentinel stood at the door. Outside stood dozens of 
horses, saddled and bridled. Every moment some one mounted 
and dashed away; every moment some other dismounted from his 
breathless and foam-flecked steed and rushed into the cabin. The 
widow, stunned and frightened, sat in the corner with an arm 
around each of her children. The little girl cried, but the boy's 
curiosity got somewhat the better of his fear. A time or two 
General Garfield took the little fellow on his knee, and quieted his 
alarm. The fences were torn down and used for camp fires. 
Great trees were hastily felled for barricades. In front of the 
house passed and repassed bodies of troops in uniform, and with 
deadly rifles. Now and then a body of cavalry dashed by in a 
whirlwind of dust. Great cannon, black and hideous, thundered 
down the rocky road, shaking the solid earth in their terrible race. 
The cabin-yard was filled with soldiers. The well was drained 
dry by them t« fill their canteens. It was like a nightmare to 
the trembling inhal)itants of the cabin. Their little crops were 
tramped into dust by the iron tread of war. On a hill in front 
of the cabin, where nothing more dangerous than a plow had ever 
been, a battery frowned. The valley which had never been dis- 
turbed by any thing more startling than the screech of an owl, or 
the cackle of the barn-yard, was filled with a muffled roar from the 
falling trees and the shouts of men. 

When morning broke on the 19th of September, 1863, on this 
secluded spot, the clarion of the strutting cock was supplanted by 
the bugle-call. The moaning of the wind through the forest was 
drowned in the incessant roll of the drums. The movement of 
troops before the cabin from right to left became more rapid. The 
consultations within became more eager and hurried. Mysterious 



HEEO AND GENEKAL.— CHICKAMAUGA. 147 

notes, on slips of white paper, were incessantly w^ritten by General 
Garfield and handed to orderlies, who galloped away into the for- 
est. Spread out before him, on an improvised table, lay his maps, 
which he constantly consulted. At one time, after a long study 
of the map, he said to General Rosecrans : " Thomas will have the 
brunt of the battle. The Rossville road must be held at all haz- 
ards." Rosecrans replied : " It is true. Thomas must hold it, if 
he has to be reinforced by the entire army." At another time, a 
messenger dashed into the room, and handed the chief of staff an 
envelope. Quietly opening it, he calmly read aloud: " Longstreet 
has reinforced Bragg with seventeen thousand troops from Lee's 
Virginia army." 

Toward nine o'clock in the morning, the movement of troops 
along the road ceased. The roar in the f()rest subsided. No more 
orders were sent by General Garfield. There was suspense. It 
was as if every one were waiting for something. The drums no 
longer throbbed ; the bugle-call ceased from echoing among the 
mountains. A half hour passed. The silence was death-like. 
As the sun mounted upward it seemed to cast darker shadows 
than usual. The house-dog gave utterance to the most plaintive 
howls. The chickens were gathered anxiously together under a 
shed, as if it were about to rain. It was. But the rain was to 
be red. Passing over through the forest, one saw that the troops 
were drawn up in lines, all with their backs toward the road and 
the cabin, and facing the direction of the river. That was half a 
mile away, but its gurgle and plashing could be easily heard in the 
silence. It sent a shudder through one's frame, as if it were the 
gurgle and plashing of blood. The only other sound that broke 
the quiet was the whinnying of cavalry horses far off to the right. 
The dumb brutes seemed anxious, and nervously answered each 
otlier's eager calls. 

Just as the hand of the clock reached ten there was a report 
from a gun. It came from the extreme lefl, miles away. Gen- 
eral Garfield stepped quickly to the door, and listened. There 
was another gun, and another, and fifly more, swelling to a roar. 
Turning to Rosccrans, Garfield said : " It has begun." To which 



148 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

the commander replied: "Then, God help us." Heavier and 
heavier became the roar. The engagement on the left was evi- 
dently becoming heavier. A quarter of au hour later messengers 
began to arrive. The enemy was endeavoring to turn the left- 
flank, but was being repulsed with heavy loss. A few moments 
later came the word that the enemy had captured ten pieces of 
artillery. The order had been given for one division of the 
troops to fall back. It was obeyed. But the artillerymen had 
been unable to move the guns back in time. The heaw under- 
growth in the forest, the fallen and rotting logs, had made it slow 
work to drag back the ponderous cannon. The red-shirted 
cannoneers were still bravely working to move their battery to 
the rear after the line had fallen back from them a long distance. 
Suddenly, with a fierce yell, the rebel column poured in upon 
them. Guns and gunners were captured. 

At 11:30 came a call from General Thomas for reinforcements. 
General Garfield swiftly wrote an order for divisions in the center 
to march to the left and reinforce General Thomas. Another 
courier was dispatched to the right, ordering troops to take the 
place of those removed from the center. At half-past twelve 
these movements were completed. So far, the only attack had 
been on the left, though the tide of battle was rolling slowly 
down the line. General Rosecrans and General Garfield held an 
earnest consultation. It was decided to order an advance on the 
right center, in order to prevent the enemy from concentrating 
his whole army against our left wing. 

Before long the din of conflict could be heard opposite the 
cabin. The advance was being fiercely contested. Messengers 
one after another came asking for reinforcements. General Gar- 
field received their messages, asked each one a question or two, 
turned for a few moments to his map, and then issvied orders for 
support to th& right center. As the battle raged fiercer in front 
of the cabin, the sounds from the extreme left grew lighter. At 
two o'cock they ceased altogether. The battery had been recapt- 
ured, and the enemy silenced for the time being. Meanwhile, 
the battle at the center became more terrible. Ambulances hur- 



HERO AND GENERAL.— CIIICKAMAUGA. 149 

ricd along. Poor fellows, pale and bleeding, staggered back to 
the road. Occasionally a shell dropped near the cabin, exploding 
with frightful force. The roar was deafening. General Garfield 
had to shout to General Kesecrans in order to be understood. 
The domestic animals around the cabin were paralyzed with 
fright. No thunder-storm, rattling among the mountain peaks, 
had ever shaken the earth like the terrific roar of the shotted guns. 
A half mile in front of the cabin, a dense smoke rose over the 
tops of the trees. All day long it poured upward in black vol- 
umes. The air became stifling with a sulphurous smell of gun- 
powder. The messengers hurrying to and from the cabin had 
changed in appearance. The bright, clean uniforms of the morn- 
ing were torn and muddy. Their faces were black with smoke ; 
their eyes bloodshot with fever. Some of them came up with 
bleeding wounds. When General Garfield called attention to the 
injury, they would say: " It is only a scratch." In the excite- 
ment of battle men receive death wounds without beine; conscious 
that they are struck. Some of the messengers sent out came back 
no more forever. Their horses w^ould gallop up the road riderless. 
The riders had found the serenity of death. " They were asleep 
in the wundowless palace of rest." 

It was impossible to predict the issue of the conflict in the cen- 
ter. At one minute, a dispatch was handed Garfield, saying that 
the line was broken, and the enemy pouring through. Before he 
had finished the reading, another message said that our troops 
had rallied, and were driving the enemy. This was repeated sev- 
eral times. 

The scene of this conflict was Vineyard's farm. It was a clear- 
ing, surrounded on all sides by the thickest woods. The troops 
of each army, in the alternations of advance and retreat, found 
friendly cover in the woods, or fatal exposure in the clearing. It 
was this configuration of the battle-field which caused the fluctua- 
tions of the issue. Time after time a column of blue charged across 
the clearing, and was driven back to rally in the sheltering forest. 
Time after time did the line of array advance from the shade into 
the sunlight only to retire, leaving half their number stretched 



150 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

lifeless on the field. It was a battle within a battle. The rest of 
the army could hear the terrific roar, but were ignorant of the 
whereabouts of the conflict. The farm and the surrounding woods 
was a distinct battle-field. The struggle upon it, though an im- 
portant element in a great battle on a vast field, was, during the 
later hours of its continuance, a separate battle, mapped upon the 
open field and forest in glaring insulation by the bodies of the 
slain. 

Meanwhile, in hurrying reinforcements to this portion of the line 
of battle, a chasm was opened between the center and le'ft. Troops 
were thrown forward to occupy it, but the enemy had discovered 
the weakness, and hurled forward heavy columns against the de- 
voted Union lines. The struggle here was the counterpart of the 
one at the Vineyard farm. At the latter place the line was, at one 
time in the afternoon, driven back to the Lafayette road; but, 
towards evening, the divisions which had repulsed the attack on 
General Thomas's extreme left were shifted down to the scene of 
these other conflicts, and the enemy was finally driven back with 
heavy loss. 

AVhen this was accomplished, the sun had already sunk behind 
the western range. Night swiftly drew her mantle over the angry 
field, and spread above the combatants her canopy of stars. The 
firino; became weaker: only now and then a sullen shot was fired 
into the night. The first day of Chickamauga was done. In a 
little while ten thousand camp-fires blazed up in the forest, throw- 
ing somber shadows back of every object. At every fire could be 
seen the frying bacon and the steaming coifee-pot, singing as mer- 
rily as if war and battle were a thousand miles away. The men had 
eaten nothing since five o'clock in the morning. They had the 
appetites of hungry giants. Many a messmate's place was empty. 
Many a corpse lay in the thicket, with a ball through the heart. 
But in the midst of horror the men were happy. The coifee and 
bacon and hard-tack tasted to the heroes like a banquet of the 
gods. With many a song and many a jest they finished the meal, 
rolled up in their blankets, and, lying down on the ground, with 
knapsacks for pillows, were fast asleep in the darkness. The red 



HERO AND GENERAL.— ClIICKAMAUGA. 151 

embers of the camp-fires gradually went out. The darkness and 
the silence were unbroken, save by the gleam of a star through 
the overarching branches, or the tramp of the watchful sentinels 
among the rustling leaves. 

But at Widow Glenn's cabin there was no sleep. General Gar- 
field dispatched messengers to the different generals of the army 
to assemble for a council of war. It was eleven o'clock before 
all were present. Long and anxious was the session. The chief 
of staff marked out the situation of each division of the army upon 
his map. The losses were estimated, and the entire ground gone 
over. On the whole, the issue of the day had been favorable. 
The army having been on the defensive, might be considered so 
far victorious in that it had held its own. The line of battle was 
now continuous, and much shorter than iu the morning. The 
general movement of troops during the day had been from right 
to left. The battle front was still parallel with the Chattanooga 
roads. General Thomas still held his own. The losses had been 
heavy, but not so severe as the enemy's. But it was evident that 
the battle would be renewed on the morrow. The troops, already 
exhausted by forced marches in the effort to concentrate before 
attack, had all been engaged during the day. It was tolerably 
certain, General Garfield thought, from the reports of his scouts, 
that the enemy would have fresh troops to oppose to the wearied 
men. This would necessitate all the armv .being; brous-ht into 
action again on the next day. In case the enemy should succeed 
in getting the roads to Chattanooga, there was no alternative but 
the entire destruction of the splendid Army of the Cumberland. 
Still further concentration of the forces on the left, to reinforce 
General Thomas, was decided on. Many of the tired troops had 
to be roused from their sleep for this movement. There was no 
rest at head-quarters. AVhen morning dawned the light still shone 
from the cabin window. 

On the morning of September 20, 1863, a dense fog rose from 
the Chickaraauga River, and, mixing with the smoke from the 
battle of the day before, filled the valley. This fact delayed the 
enemy's attack. The sun rose, looking through the fog like a vast 



*/ 



152 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

disk of blood. General Garfield noticed it, and, pointing to the 
phenomenon, said: "It is ominous. It will indeed be a day of 
blood." By nine o'clock the fog lifted sufficiently for the attack. 
As on the day l^efore, it began on the left, rolling down the line. 
From early morning General Thomas withstood the furious as- 
saults of the constantly reinforced enemy. The change of the line 
in the night had been such that it was the right wing instead of 
the center which was now in front of the Widow Glenn's. The 
battle was fierce and more general than the day before. The de- 
mands for reinforcements on the left came faster and faster. Di- 
vision after division was moved to the left. In the midst of a 
battle these movements are dangerous. A single order, given from 
head-quarters without a perfect comprehension of the situation of 
the troops, a single ambiguous phrase, a single erroneous punctua- 
tion mark in the hastily-written dispatch, may cost thousands of 
lives in a few minutes. In a battle like Chiekamauga, where the 
only unity possible is by perfect and swift obedience to the com- 
mands from head-quarters, a single misunderstood sentence may 
change the destiny of empires. 

The information received at Widow Glenn's up to ten o'clock 
of the 20th showed that the troops, though wearied, were holding 
their own. Up to this time General Garfield, appreciating each 
emergency as it occurred, had directed every movement, and writ- 
ten every order during the battle. Not a blunder had occurred. 
His clear, unmistakable English, had not a doubtful phrase or a 
misplaced comma. Every officer had understood and executed 
just what was expected of him. The fury of the storm had so far 
spent itself in vain. 

At half-past ten, an aid galloped up to the cabin and informed 
General Rosecrans that there was a chasm in the center, between 
the divisions of General Reynolds on the left and General Wood 
on the right. Unfortunate moment ! Cruel fate ! In a moment 
a blunder was committed which was almost to destroy our heroic 
army. In the excitement of the crisis, Rosecrans varied from his 
custom of consulting the chief of staff. General Garfield was 
deeply engaged at another matter. Rosecrans called another aid 



HERO AND GENERAL.— CHICKAMAUGA. 153 X 

to write an order instantly directing Wood to close the gap by 
mo vino; to his left. Here is the document as it was dashed down 
at that memorable and awful moment: 

" Head-Quarters Department of CuarBERLAND, \ 
" September 20th— 10.45 A. M. / 

''Brigadier-Geiieral Woodj Commanding Division: 

"The general commanding directs that you close up on Reynolds as 
fa.st as possible, aud support him. Respectfully, etc., 

" Frank S. Bond, Major and Aid-de-camp." 

Had General Garfield been consulted that order would never 
have been written. Wood toas not next to Reynolds. General 
Brannan's division was in the line between them. Brannan's force 
stood back from the line somewhat. The aid, galloping rapidly over 
the field, did not know that a little farther back in the forest stood 
Brannan's division. It looked to him like a break in the line. 
General Rosecrans was either ignorant, > or forgot that Brannan 
was there. General Garfield alone knew the situation of every 
division on the battle-field. This fatal order rvas the only one of 
the entire battle which he did not icrite himself. On receipt of the 
order. General Wood was confused. He could not close up on 
Reynolds because Brannan was in the way. Supposing, however, 
from the words of the order, that Reynolds was heavily pressed, and 
that the intention was to reinforce him, and knowing the extreme 
importance of obeying orders from head-quarters, in order to pre- 
vent the army from getting inextricably tangled in the forest, he 
promptly marched his division backward, passed to the rear of 
Brannan, and thus to the rear of and support of Reynolds. 

The fatal withdrawal of Wood from the line of battle was sim- 
ultaneous with a Confederate advance. Failing in his desperate 
and bloody attacks upon the left, Bragg ordered an advance all 
along the line. Right opposite the chasm left by Wood was Long- 
street, the most desperate fighter of the Confederacy, with seven- 
teen thousand veteran troops from Lee's army. Formed in solid 
column, three-quarters of a mile long, on they came right at the 
gap. Two brigades of Federal troops, under General Lytic, reached 



154 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

the space first, but were instantly ground to powder beneath this 
tremendous ram. Right through the gap came the wedge, splitting 
the Union army in two. In fifteen minutes the entire right wing 
was a rout. One-half the army was in a dead run toward Ross- 
ville. Guns, knajisacks, blankets, whatever could impede them, 
was hastily thrown away. 

So sudden was the rout that the stream of fugitives, swarming 
back from the woods, was the first information received at Widow 
Glenn's that the line had been pierced. There was no time to be 
lost. Behind the fleeing troops came the iron columns of the en- 
emy. In five minutes more the cabin would be in their hands. 
Hastily gathering his precious maps, Garfield followed Rosecrans 
on horseback, over to the Dry Valley road. Here General Gar- 
field dismounted, and exerted all his powers to stem the tide of 
retreat. Snatching a flag from a flying color-bearer, he shouted at 
the deaf ears of the mob. Seizing men by their shoulders he would 
turn them around, and then grasp others to try and form a nucleus 
to resist the flood. It Avas useless. The moment he took his 
hands off" of a man he would run. 

Rejoining Rosecrans, who believed that the entire army was 
routed, the commander said : " Garfield, what can be done ?" Un- 
dismayed by the panic-stricken army crowding past him, which is 
said to be the most demoralizing and unnerving sight on earth, 
Garfield calmly said, " One of us should go to Chattanooga, se- 
cure the bridges in case of total defeat, and collect the fragments 
of the armv on a new line. The other should make his wav, if 
possible, to Thomas, explain the situation, and tell him to hold his 
ground at any cost, until the army can be rallied at Chattanooga." 
"Which will you do?" asked Rosecrans. "Let me go to the 
front," was General Garfield's instant reply. " It is dangerous," 
said he, " but the army and country can better afford for me to be 
killed than for you." They dismounted for a hurried consulta- 
tion. With ear on the ground, they anxiously listened to the sound 
of Thomas's guns. " It is no use," said Rosecrans. " The fire is 
broken and irregular. Thomas is driven. Let us both hurry to 
Chattanooga, to save what can be saved." But General Garfield 



HERO AND GENERAL.— CHICKAMAUGA. 



155 



had a better ear. " You are mistaken. The fire is still in regular 
volleys. Thomas holds his own, and must be informed of the 
situation. Send orders to Sheridan, and the other commanders of 
the right wing, to collect the fragments of their commands and 




GARFIELD AT THE BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA. 



move them through Ross- 
ville, and back on the La- 
fayette road, to Thomas's 
support." There were a 
few more hurried words ; 
then a grasp of the hand 
and the commander and his chief of staiF separated, the one to go 
to the rear, the otlier to the front. Rosecrans has said that he 
felt Garfield would never come back again. 

Then began that world-famous ride. No one knew the situation 
of the troops, the cause of the disaster, and the way to retrieve it 
like the chief of staff. To convey that priceless information to 
Thomas, Garfield determined to do or to die. He was accompa- 
nied by Captain Gano, who had come from General Thomas before 
the disaster, and knew how to reach him ; besides these two, each 






V 156 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

officer had an orderly. On they galloped up the Dry Valley road, 
parallel with, but two miles back of, the morning's line of battle. 
- After reaching a point opposite the left wing, they expected to 
cross to General Thomas. But Longstreet's column, after passing 
the Union center, had turned to its right at Widow Glenn's, 
to march to the rear of General Thomas, and thus destroy that 
part of the army w'hich still stood fighting the foe in its face. 
The course of Longstreet was thus parallel with the road along 
which Garfield galloped. At every effort to cross to the front he 
found the enemy between him and General Thomas. 

It was a race between the rebel column and the noble steed 
on which Garfield rode. Up and down along the stony valley 
road, sparks flying from the horse's heels, two of the party hat- 
less, and all breathless, without delay or doubt on dashed the 
heroes. Still the enemy was between them and Thomas. They 
were compelled to go almost to Rossville. At last General 
Garfield said : " We must try to cross now or never. In a half 
hour it will be too late for us to do any good." Turning sharply 
to their right, they found themselves in a dark-tangled forest. 
They were scratched and bleeding from the brier thickets and the 
overhanging branches. But not a rider checked his horse. 
General Garfield's horse seemed to catch the spirit of the race. 
Over ravines and fences, through an almost inpenetrable under- 
growth, sometimes through a marsh, and then over broken rocks, 
the smoking steed plunged without a quiver. 

Suddenly they came upon a cabin, a Confederate pest-house. A 
crowd of unfortunates, in various stages of the small-pox, were sit- 
ting and lying about the lonely and avoided place. The other 
riders spurred on their way, but General Garfield reined in sharp- 
ly, and, calling in a kind tone to the strongest of the wrecks, 
asked, '^ Can I do any thing for you, my poor fellow ? " In an in- 
stant the man gasped out, " Do not come near. It is small-pox. 
But for God's sake give us money to buy food." Quick as thought 
the great-hearted chief of staff drew out his purse and tossed it to 
the man, and with a rapid but cheerful "good-bye" spurred after 
his companions. Crashing, tearing, plunging, rearing through the 



HERO AND GENERAL.— CHICK AMAUG A. 157 

forest dashed the steed. Poet's song could not be long to cele- 
brate that daring deed. 

Twice they stopped. They were on dangerous ground. At 
any moment they might come upon the enemy. They were right 
on the ground for which Longstreet's column was headed. Which 
would get there first ? A third time they stopped. The roar of 
battle was very near. They were in the greatest peril. Utterly 
ignorant of the course of events, since he had been driven from 
Widow Glenn's, General Garfield did not know but what the 
rebel column had passed completely to Thomas's rear and lay di- 
rectly in front of them. They changed their course slightly to 
the left. Of his own danger Garfield never thought. The great 
fear in his mind was that he would fail to reach Thomas, with the 
order to take command of all the forces, and with the previous 
information of the necessity of a change of front. At last they 
reached a cotton field. If the enemy was near, it was almost cer- 
tain death. Suddenly a rifle-ball whizzed past Garfield's face. 
Turning in his saddle he saw^ the fence on the right glittering 
with murderous rifles. A second later a shower of balls rattled 
around the little party. Garfield shouted, " Scatter, gentlemen, 
scatter," and wheeled abruptly to the left. Along that side of the 
field was a ridge. If it could be reached, they were safe. The 
two orderlies never reached it. Captain Gano's horse was shot 
through the lungs, and his own leg broken by the fall. Garfield 
was now the single target for the enemy. His own horse received 
two balls, but the noble animal kept straight on at its terrific 
speed. General Garfield speaking of it afterwards said that his 
thought was divided between poor Thomas and his young wife 
and child in the little home at Hiram. With a few more leaps he 
gained the ridge, unhurt. Captain Gano painfully crawling on the 
ground finally gained the ridge himself. 

General Thomas was still a mile away. In ten minutes Gar- 
field was at his side, hurriedly explaining the catastrophe at noon. 
They stood on a knoll overlooking the field of battle. The horse 
which had borne Garfield on his memorable ride, dropped dead 
at his feet while the chief of staff told Thomas the situation. 



1. 



^158 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

There was no time to be lost. Hurrying down to his right, Gen- 
eral Thomas found that a considerable portion of the center had 
swung around like a door to oppose Longstreet's advance. For 
an hour or more his columns had flung themselves with desper- 
ate fury on this line so unexpectedly opposed to them. Hour after 
hour these lines had held him at bay. The slaughter was terri- 
ble. But this could not last. There was no uniform plan in this 
accidental battle front. There were great chasms in it. The Con- 
federate forces were diverging to their left toward the Dry A'^alley 
road, and would soon flank this line. But Thomas was a great 
commander. Without a moment's delay his line of battle was 
withdrawn to a ridge in the form of a horse-shoe. The main front 
was now' at right angles with that of the morning; that is, it lay 
across the Rossville road instead of parallel with it. Thomas's 
troojjs were now arranged in a three-quarter circle. They scarce- 
ly numbered twenty-five thousand. Around this circle, as around 
a little island, like an ocean of fire, raged a Confederate army of 
sixty thousand troops. Overwhelmed by numbers. General 
Thomas still held the horse-shoe ridge, through which lay the 
Rossville road. The storm of battle raged with fearful power. 
The line of heroes seemed again and again about to be swallowed 
up in the encircling fire. Again and again Longstreet's troops 
charged with unexampled impetuosity, and as many times were 
beaten back bruised and bleeding. The crisis of the battle at 
half past four in the afternoon, when Longstrcet hurled forward 
his magnificent reserve corps, is said to have rivaled, in tragic ini 
portance and far-reaching consequences, the supreme moment in 
the battle of Gettysburg, when Pickett's ten thousand Virginians, 
in solid column, charged upon Cemetery Ridge. 

But all the valor and all the fury was in vain. " George A. 
Thomas," in the words of Garfield, " was indeed the ^ rock of 
Chickamauga,' against which the wild waves of battle dashed in 
vain. 

General Garfield, from the moment of his arrival, had plunged 
into the thickest of the fray. AVhen at last the thinned and 
shattered lines of gray withdrew, leaving thousands of their dead 



HEKO AND GENERAL.— CHICKAMAUG A. 159 

upon the bloody field, smoked and powder-grimed, he was person- 
ally managing a battery of which the chief gunners had been 
killed at their post. Towards the close of the fight Thomas's am- 
munition ran very low. His ammunition trains had become in- 
volved with the rout of the right, and were miles in the rear at 
Rossville. This want of ammunition created more fear than the 
assaults of the enemy. The last charge was repelled at portions 
of the line with the bayonet alone. 

But the hard-earned victory was won. The Rossville road 
was still held. The masterly skill and coolness of Thomas, when 
General Garfield reached him with information as to the rest of 
the army, which, it must be remembered, was never visible through 
tlie dense forests and jagged ridges of the valley, had saved the Army 
of the Cumberland from destruction. After night the exhausted 
men withdrew to Rossville and subsequently to Chattanooga. 

A great battle is a memorable experience to one who takes part. 
There is nothing like it on earth. Henceforth the participant is 
diiferent from other men. All his preceding life becomes small and 
forgotten after such days as those of Chickamauga. From that day he 
feels that he began to live. When the flames of frenzy with which he 
was possessed subside, they have left their mark on his being. Ordi- 
narily the flames of battle have burnt out many sympathies. His nat- 
ure stands like a forest of charred and blackened trunks, once green 
and beautiful, waving in their leafy splendor, but through which 
the destroying tempest of fire has passed in its mad career of venge- 
ance. He can neither forget nor forgive the murderous foe. Be- 
fi)re the battle he might have exchanged tobacco plugs with the man 
witli whom he would have, with equal readiness, exchanged shots. 
But after the carnage of the battle, after the day of blood and fury, 
all this is passed. The last gun is fired on the field of battle. 
The last shattered line of heroes withdraws into the night. The 
earth has received its last baptism of blood for the time-being. 
Only burial parties, with white flags, may be seen picking their 
Avay among the fallen brave. The actual battle is over forever. 
Not so is it with the combatant. In his mind the battle goes on 
and on. He is perpetually training masked batteries on the foe. 



7^ 



IGO LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

The roar of conflict never ceases to reverberate in his brain. 
Throughout his life, whenever recalled to the subject of the war, 
his mental attitude is that of the battle-field. In his thought the 
columns are still charging up the hill. The earth still shakes with 
an artillery that is never silenced. The air is still sulphurous wdth 
gunpowder smoke. The ranks of the brave and true still fall 
around him. Forever is he mentally loading and firing; forever 
charging bayonets across the bloody field; forever burying the 
fallen heroes under the protection of the flag of truce. 

This is the law of ordinary minds. The red panorama of the 
Gettysburg and the Chickamauga is forever moving before his 
eyes. The wrench or strain given to his mental being by those 
days is too terrific, too awful, for any reaction in the average mind. 
This fact has been abundantly proven in the history of the last 
twenty years. Chickamauga thus became a new l)irth to many a 
soldier. His life, henceforward, seemed to date from the 19th of 
September, 1863. His life was ever afterward marked off by 
anniversaries of that day. It is found that many soldiers die on 
the anniversary of some great battle in which they were partici- 
pants. Such is the influence mental states bear upon the physical 
organism. 

Chickamauga was all this to General Garfield, It was more 
than this to him. He was not merely a participant in the battle 
of bullets. He was also in the battle of brains. The field soldier 
certainly feels enough anxiety. His mental experience has enough 
of torture to gratify the monarch of hell himself. But the anxieties 
of the man at head-quarters are unspeakable. He sees not merely 
the actual horrors and the individual danger. He carries on his heart 
the responsibility for an army. He is responsible for the thousands 
of lives. A single mistake, a single blunder, a single defective 
plan, will forever desolate unnumbered firesides. More than this 
he feels. Not only the fate of the army, but the fate of the 
country rests in his hand. The burden is crushing. It may be 
said this is only upon the Commander-in-chief. But General 
Garfield, as chief of staff, we have seen, was no figure-head, no 
amanuensis. He took the responsibilities of that campaign and 



HERO AND GENERAL.— CHICKAMAUGA. 



161 



battle to his own heart. At every step his genius grappled with 
the situation. Rosccrans was a good soldier; but in nothing was 
his ability so exhibited as in selecting Garfield for his confidential 
adviser and trusting so fully to his genius. 

Thus the battle of Chickaniauga entered into Garfield's mental 
experience in its greatest 
aspects. His profoundly 
sympathetic nature was 
subjected to an incalcu- 
lable strain. The struggle 
of the first day, the begin- 
ning of the second, the 
fatal order, the appalling 
catastrophe, the f e a r f u 1 
ride, the invincible cour- 
age of Thomas, the costly 
victory, all these things 
were incorporated into his 
life. He lived years in a 
single hour. He was only 
thirty-one years old. It was 
only nine years since the 
boys at Williams College 
had laughed at him as a 
green-horn ; only seven 
years since he had gradu- 
ated. But the education of Chickamauga gave him age. The maturity 
of the mind is not measured by time, but by experience. Previous 
to the Chattanooga campaign, General Garfield was a clever man. 
After the battle of Chickamauga he was a great man. 

Of the general results of the battle, we quote from Van Horn's 

magnificent but critical History of the Army of the Cumberland: 

" Whatever were the immediate and more local consequences of 

tlie battle, in its remote relations and significance, it has claims to 

historic grandeur. The Army of the Cumberland, without support 

on either flank, had leaped across the Tennessee River and the 
11 




DIAGRAM OF THE BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA. 



162 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

contiguous mountains, and yet escaped destruction, though the 
armies of the enemy, east and west, were made tributary to a com- 
bination of forces to accomplish this end. Paroled prisoners from 
Vicksburg, regular troops from Mississippi and Georgia, a veteran 
corps from Lee's army in Virginia, and Buckner's corps from East 
Tennessee, joined Bragg on the banks of the Chickamauga, not 
simply to retake Chattanooga, but to annihilate the Army of the 
Cumberland. Nearly half of Bragg's army consisted of recent 
reinforcements, sent to Northern Georgia while the authorities at 
Washington, perplexed with the military situation, were resting under 
the delusion that General Bragg was reinforcing Lee. But this 
heavy draft upon the resources of the Confederacy was burdened 
with the fatality which clung to all the grander efforts of the insur- 
gents in the west. And General Bragg's broken and exhausted 
army w'as a symbol of the fast-coming exhaustion of the Confeder- 
acy itself. The issue of the battle was not thus defined to the 
consciousness of the Southern people, but was, doubtless, one of the 
most emphatic disappointments of the struggle, and intensified the 
gloom produced by previous defeats." 

In his report of the battle to the Department of War, General 
Rosecrans said : 

"To Brigadier-General James A. Garfield, chief of staff, I am es- 
pecially indebted for the clear and ready manner in which he seized the 
points of action and movement, and expressed in orders the ideas of the 
general commanding." 

in relating the history of General Garfield's military career, no 
mention has been made of a fact which was destined to affect his 
future. In the fall of 1862, he had been nominated and elected to 
Congress from his own district. The thing had been accomplished 
in his absence, and almost without his knowledge. His term did 
not begin till December, 1863, and his constituents supposed the 
war would be over before that time. Garfield himself looked at 
the thing with indifference. It did not interfere with his service 
in the army, could not do so for a long time, and there was noth- 
ing to hurry his decision in the matter. After the Tullahoma 



HERO AND GENERAL.— CONGRESS OR THE ARMY? 163 

campaign, in the summer of 18(33, when he hud had a taste of 

successful military strategy, the Congressional question began 

to force itself to the surface of his thought. There was no 

prospect of peace. All his inclinations persuaded him to remain 

in the army. But Congress met in December, and he would have 

to decide. 

In this frame of mind, he had a long confidential talk with 

Rosecrans on the subject. Rosecrans told him he ought to enter 

Congress. 

I 

"I am glad for your sake," said Rosecrans, "that you have a new 

distinction, and I certainly think you can accept it with honor; and, what 

is more, I deem it your duty to do so. The war is not over yet, nor 

will it be for some time to come. There will be, of necessity, many 

questions arising in Congress which will require not alone statesman -like 

treatment, but the advice of men having an acquaintance with military 

atiliirs. For this, and other reasons, I believe you will be able to do 

equally good service to your country in Congress as in the field." 

Still General Garfield was undecided, except on one thing: 
that was to w^ait. Meantime the Chattanooga campaign came on, 
terminating at Chickamauga. Garfield was consumed with mili- 
tary zeal. He could hardly bear to think of chaining himself up 
to a desk for the monotonous sessions of Cono-ress. Jill the mil- 
itary spirit which had blazed in his ancestors reasserted itself in 
him. His mind was absorbed with the stupendous problems of 
war which the Rebellion presented. Recognizing within himself 
an ability superior to many around and above him for grappling 
with questions of strategy, he was loath to abandon its exercise. 
It was evident, too, that in the presence of the commanding pro- 
portions of the military fame of successful Union generals, any 
merely Congressional reputation would be dwarfed and over- 
shadowed. 

On the other hand, his brother officers urged him to go to Con- 
gress. There was a painful need of military men there. The 
enormous necessities of the army seemed too great to be compre- 
hended by civilians. All nun oi' soldierly instincts and abilities 



164 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

were at the front, and there was danger that the fountain of sup- 
plies in the Lower House of Congress would dry up. 

In the midst of these doubts, two weeks after the battle of 
Chickamauga, he was summoned to Washington. The War De- 
partment demanded a full explanation of the battle which had 
cost so many thousand lives. Garfield was known at Washington, 
and they determined to have from him the complete history of 
the campaign, and an explanation of the necessities of the situa- 
tion. 

On his way to the Capital he, of course, went by the vine- 
covered cottage at Hiram. After the carnage and havoc of war, 
the peaceful fireside seemed a thousand times more dear than ever, 
worth all the blood and all the tears that were being shed for it. 
During his brief stay at home, his first born, " Little Trot," only 
three years of age, was seized with a fatal illness, and carried to the 
quiet village cemetery. Oppressed with the private as well as the 
public sorrow, he continued on his journey to Washington. In 
New York City he staid over night with an old college friend, 
Henry E. Knox. Again he talked over the Congressional ques- 
tion in all its bearings. The conversation lasted far into the 
night. The friend knew the feeling of the country ; he knew the 
need for military men in Congress, and he was well acquainted 
with Garfield's ability. His advice to General Garfield was to 
accept the Congressional seat as a public duty. 

But never was a man so unwilling to accept a place in Congress. 
General Garfield felt that he had a career before him if he re- 
mained in the army, and he wanted to do so. At last he agreed 
to submit the question to Mr. Lincoln. " I will lay it before him 
when I reach Washington, and let his decision settle the matter," 
I said he. Garfield felt that his mission to the Capital was to save 
Rosecrans. When he called on Secretary Stanton, he was notified 
of his promotion to the rank of major-general, " for gallant and 
meritorious services at Chickamauga." This added further com- 
plexity to the Congressional question. Every detail of the move- 
ments of the Army of the Cumberhmd was gone through with by 
him before the War Department. With the aid of maps he made 



HERO AND GEN:^KAL.— INTERCEDES FOR ROSECRANS. 165 

an elaborate presentation of the facts, from the long delay at INIur- 
freesboro clear through the Tullahoma and Chattanooga cam- 
paigns. His expose was masterly. Every thing he could do was 
done to save his chief. Montgomery Blair, one of the ablest men 
at the Capital, after listening to General Garfield's jaresentation of 
the facts, said to a friend, "Garfield is a great man." President 
Lincoln said : " I have never understood so fully and clearly the 
necessities, situation, and movements of any army in the field." 

But it was in vain. Stanton was firm. Rosecrans had to go. 
His obstinate refusals to advance from INIurfreesboro ; his testy 
and almost insulting letters ; his violent temj^er, and uncontrol- 
lable stubbornness had ruined him long before Chickaraauga. He 
had broken with the Commander-in-chief as well as with Secre- 
tarv Stanton. He had said that he regarded certain suggestions 
fl'om the Department "as a profound, grievous, cruel, and ungener- 
ous official and personal wrong." The powerful enemies which he 
thus made only waited for an opportunity to destroy him. That 
opportunity came with the fatal order at Chickamauga, the rout 
of the right wing, the loss of presence of mind, and the ride to 
the rear. This last stood in painful contrast with General Gar- 
field's dangerous and heroic ride to the front. It was admitted 
that the strategy of the campaigns was splendid, Napoleonic. It 
could not be denied that the mistake as to the enemy's where- 
abouts after the evacuation of Chattanooga originated in the dis- 
patches from Washington. No matter. Rosecrans was relieved, 
and the chief of staff, whom Stanton correctly believed to have 
been very largely the originator of the strategic advance, was pro- 
moted. 

His immediate duty at Washington being discharged, General 
Garfield laid the question of the seat in Congress before the man 
who, perhaps, felt more sympathy and appreciation for and with 
him than any other, because, like himself, Garfield sprang from 
poverty, Abraham Lincoln. The great, grave President thought 
it over, and finally said: 

"The Republican majority in Congress is very small, and it is often 
doubtful whether we can carry the necessary war measures; and, besides, 



166 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

we are greatly lacking in men of military experience in the House to regu- 
late legislation about the army. It is your duty, therefore, to enter 
Congress, at any rate for the present." 

This, for the time being, settled the matter. AYith the under- 
standing that his rank would be restored if he desired to return 
to the army. General Garfield reluctantly resigned his new major- 
generalship, a position whose salary was double that of a Congress- 
man, in order to enter on the following day the House of Repre- 
sentatives. 

The greatest men seem often to have been those who were 
suddenly lifted out of the career of life which they had chosen, 
and to which they seemed to be preeminently adapted, and forced, 
as it were, by the exigencies of the times, into a new channel. 
Julius Csesar, whose lofty character, unapproachable genius, and 
sorrowful death, are hardly equalled in the annals of any age or 
country, had chosen for himself the career of a civil and religious 
officer of state. His chosen field was in the stately sessions of 
the Roman Senate, or before the turbulent multitudes of the 
forum. It was said of him by his enemies, that in speaking he 
excelled those who practiced no other art. It was said that, had 
he continued in his chosen career, he would have outshone, in his 
eloquence, every orator whose name and fame has been transmitted 
by Rome to later generations. But from this career he was unex- 
pectedly taken. The dangers to the state from the Gallic tribes, 
and the restless Roman appetite for conquest, required a military 
leader. Almost by accident Csesar was drawn away from the sen- 
ate and the forum to take up the profession of arms. 

Unlike the great Roman, Garfield, under the stress of public 
necessity, was almost by accident withdrawn from the career of 
arms, in which it may be truly said of him that he, too, excelled 
those who practiced no other art, to enter upon the career of a 
legislator. Cffisar exchanged the assembly for the camp, while the 
great American left the camp for the assembly. Each did so at 
the call of the state, and each was to become, in his new field, the 
master spirit of his generation. 



IN THE ASCENDANT.— IN CONGRESS. 167 



CHAPTER yi. 

IN THE ASCENDANT. 

ON the 5th day of December, 1863, General Garfield took his 
.<cat in the Thirty-Eighth Congress of the United States. 
The reader who has gone over the preceding chapter will know 
in part what brought him there, and will be prepared to judge 
what was expected of him. But in order to understand clearly 
and fully what actually was to be looked for from this Congres- 
sional neophyte, it will be of advantage to consider ivho sent 
Garfield to the House. For it is a safe rule to lay down, that 
many Congressmen truly represent their districts; and a people 
may not unfairly be judged by their average representation in 
Congress for any considerable period of time. 

What kind of a constituency, then, was that which, for nine 
times the space that measures the term of a Congressman, and an 
equal number of times the space that measures the political life 
of many a Congressman, kept James A. Garfield in that place 
without a moment's intermission? We would probably make no 
mistake if we should describe them from our knowledge of him. 
But let us take the mathematician's method and verify our conclu- 
sion by a reverse process. 

Twelve counties in the north-eastern corner of the State of Ohio 
are popularly grouped together and called the Western Reserve. 
They are the very Canaan of that great commonwealth ; or, at 
least, come so near it that they can be described as a land flow- 
ing with wine and milk, — for grape culture is one of their im- 
portant industries, and their dairies are famous. Of the nearly 
twenty-five million pounds of cheese annually produced in Ohio, 
ninety-five per cent, is made in the Western Reserve. 

The Greeks had a story that their god Jupiter, when an infant, 



168 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

was tumbled down from the heavens to a secluded place on earth, 
where he was carefully watched while he grew. It shall be our 
easy task to show that the Western Reserve is a good place for a 
public man to grow in and make preparation to rule in a higher 
sphere. 

The Reserve is a place of great natural resources, and, under 
almost any conditions, would have a well-to-do population. But 
it is not advantages of this kind which make it an unusually good 
place for the growth of a great man. If we should presume to say 
so, all the facts of history would rise to protest its falsity. The arts 
and literature and eloquence and political glory of Athens and 
her sister states clung close to barren hill-sides. Switzerland rose 
to be the first free state of Europe among the wild fastnesses of 
her unfertile mountains. The American Revolution was fought 
out and the Union established by the finest generation of states- 
men and warriors ever produced on the continent, before the ex- 
tent or the wealth of our broad, level empire was dreamed of. 
New England and Virginia were not rich ; but they were great, 
and they were free, and so were their statesmen in those days. 

The Western Reserve was largely settled by people of New En- 
gland. And, since it is not the character of the soil, but the com- 
position of the people, which chiefly influences the man who grows 
there, it will be profitable to see of what sort these settlers and 
their descendants were. 

One of the first things the first settlers of the Western Reserve 
did was to build a church. They brought the plan of their 
altars with them. Religion was the corner-stone of their new 
civilization. Religion was the solid rock on which they built a 
high morality and an earnest intelligence. Somehow or other 
they rested calmly on a God who made the forest his temple, and 
walked through it with them to the very end of the earth. They 
have their religion with them to this day, and it seems to round 
out their lives to a fuller completeness, and gives them solidity of 
character, and with its divinely sanctioned maxims creates such a 
standard of morality as a good man would aspire to to make his 
rule of life. This kind of community is a good place in which 



IN THE ASCENDANT.— THE WESTERN EESEKVE. 169 

to grow a public man, if you want him to hold fast to principle 
unchauiJ-oablv at all times. 

The very next thing after a church, when this district was set- 
tled, came the common school. The race of which the settlers 
came was brainy. Their families always had more than a thim- 
bleful of sense apiece. Hence the demand for education, and, 
therefore, a school-house and a school-teacher. These schools 
have grown and multiplied. The Reserve has not only common- 
schools, but colleges, which are already first-class, and are des- 
tined to become famous seats of learning. The nation itself has 
come to recognize in the people of the Reserve a higher average 
of intelligence than exists anywhere in the Union, except in a 
very few sections. Here is a very good place to seek for a public 
man who shall have the kind of intellect to grapple with great 
questions of statesmanship, and master them. 

The Reserve was first peopled by a set of men who were not 
only religious, moral, and intelligent ; but who possessed in them- 
selves two requisites of a great people — courage and strength. 
Their own ancestors had braved untold dangers in coming to the 
American shores, and had endured hardships and privations in- 
numerable to gain a footing on the rocky coast. Upborne by the 
tradition of these experiences, the pilgrimage and the work of 
founding a new State had been gone over by them again. They 
were a race who sailed unknown seas, climbed unexplored mount- 
ains to get into a new country, and cut down a primeval forest. 
Their descendants would be neither pigmies nor poltroons. This 
would certainly be a fine place for the production of a statesman 
who would have the courage to stand by his convictions and the 
power to successfully push his measures through. 

The political institutions and political habits of this people de- 
serve consideration. They brought their ideas of how to con- 
struct and conduct a State from New England, where the town is 
a political unit, and the town-meeting a great event. So, from 
the very earliest time, the Reserve has been a region where every 
body was personally interested in public affairs. They put a man 
in office because they thought, on actual investigation, that he was 



170 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

equal to its duties. And, more than that, they held their appoint- 
ees to strict account. The unfortunate man who proved incapable 
or dishonest never got their support again, and never heard the 
last of their censures. These causes have made their political his- 
tory good reading. Its chapters are pure and strong and healthy. 

The Kineteenth Congressional District of Ohio, at the time of 
Garfield's election, included six counties — Portage, Ashtabula, 
Lake, Geauga, Trumbull, and Mahoning. They are the eastern 
half of the Western Reserve. Before Garfield's first election this 
district had been represented for many years by Joshua R. Gid- 
dings, one of the ablest antislavery leaders of the period Just be- 
fore the war. 

In 1858, Giddings was displaced. Overconfidence in his hold 
on the people had made him a little reckless, and an ambitious 
politician took advantage of the opportunity. A flaw, very slight 
indeed, was searched out in Giddiugs's record. It was proved 
that his mileage fees were in excess of what the shortest route 
to Washington required. He had made the people pay his ex- 
penses to New York. The convention having been skillfully 
worked up on this peccadillo of its old favorite, a Mr. Hutchins 
was sent to Congress in his stead. 

A little time only was required to display the difference between 
Mr. Hutchins and his predecessor. Mr. Giddings was requested 
at the next election to return. But that old patriot had been re- 
warded by the Government with a consulate at Montreal, and pre- 
ferred to remain there ; which he did until his death in 1864. In 
this situation the people of the Nineteenth District began to 
search for a man who could represent them according to their de- 
sire. They felt that it was due to themselves and to the Nation 
that they send to Congress a leader; some man with ability and 
force sufficient to deal with the great questions of the day, and 
solve the problems of the war. 

At such a time as this, all eyes turned to the brilliant young 
General, James A. Garfield. His legislative abilities had been 
tested in the Ohio legislature just before the war, and his record 
there was an assurance of his fitness. He was a scholarly man ; a 



IN THE ASCENDANT.— EEVIEW OF CONGllESSES. 171 

forcible speaker; and one whose experience in the field was not 
only honorable to himself, but gave him a knowledge of military 
aifairs which would be exceedingly useful in the condition of na- 
tional affairs at that time. The election occurred in 1862, more 
than a year before the man elected could take his place. The 
war, they supposed, would be over by that time, so that Garfield's 
service in the field would not be left incomplete. He was himself 
a perfect illustration of his own saying, " Be fit for more than the 
thing you are now doing." A'ud thus it happened that, without 
the least expression of such a desire. General Garfield was sent to 
Congress by the general and hearty wishes of his constituents. 

Now into what kind of an arena was it that these people sent 
their champion to stand for them? What was its composition, and 
what had been its character in past times? In answering these 
questions, we are helped by an article written by Garfield for the 
AtlantiG Monthly of July, 1877, wherein he says: 

"The limits of this article will not allow rae to notice the changes in 
manners and methods in Congress since the administration of the elder 
Adams. Such a review would bring before us many striking characters 
and many stirring scenes. 

"In the long line of those who have occupied seats in Congress, we 
should see, here and there, rising above the undistinguished mass, the 
figures of those great men whose lives and labors have made their country 
illustrious, and whose influence upon its destiny will be felt for ages to 
come. We should see that group of great statesmen whom the last war 
with England brought to public notice, among whom were Ames and 
Randolph, Clay and Webster, Calhoun and Benton, Wright and Prentiss, 
making their era famous by their statesmanship, and creating and de- 
stroying political parties by their fierce antagonisms. We should see the 
folly and barbarism of the so-called code of honor, destroying noblemen 
in the fatal meadow of Bladensburgh. We should see the spiiit of lib- 
erty awaking the conscience of the nation to the sin and danger of slav- 
ery, whose advocates had inherited and kept alive the old anarchic spirit 
of disunion. We should trace the progress of that great struggle from 
the days when John Quincy Adams stood in the House of Keproscnta- 
tives, like a lion at bay, defending the sacred right of petition; when, 
after his death, Joshua R. Giddings continued the good fight, standing 



71 

172 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

at this post for twenty years, his white locks, like the plume of Henry 
of Navarre, always showing where the battle for freedom raged most 
fiercely; when his small band in Congress, reinforced by Hale and 
Sumner, Wade and Chase, Lovejoy and Stevens, continued the struggle 
amid the most turbulent scenes ; when daggers were brandished and pis- 
tols were drawn in the halls of Congress; and, later, when, one by one, 
the senators and representatives of eleven States, breathing defiance and 
uttering maledictions upon the Union, resigned their seats and left the 
Capitol to take up arms against their country. We should see the Con- 
gress of a people long unused to war, when confronted by a supreme 
danger, raising, equipping, and supporting an army greater than all the 
armies of Napoleon and Wellington combined : meeting the most diffi- 
cult questions of international and constitutional law; and, by new forms 
of taxation, raising a revenue which, in one year of the war, amounted 
to more than all the national taxes collected during the first half century 
of the Government." 

All this we should see, and more. And it was to help com- 
plete the gigantic tasks of Congress during this momentous time 
that Garfield was sent there. The House of Representatives con- 
tained many able men, but most of these belonged to a closing pe- 
riod. They had grown up in opposition, not in administration. 
A new group of men was now about to take the lead, and recon- 
struct the Union on a foundation whose corner-stone should be 
Union and Liberty, instead of Slavery and State Rights. The 
old generation of leaders were still there with their -wisdom and 
valuable experience; but the spirit of a new era now came in, 
which should outlive Thaddeus Stevens and his compeers. About 
this time there came into Congress, Blaine and Boutwell and 
Conkling and — Garfield, destined to do more than any of them in 
restoring prosperity, peace, public justice, and, above all, a har- 
monious Union, which this age shall not again see broken. 

The usefulness of a legislator has in all times been popularly 
ascribed to his work in ^the open assembly. But this was never 
wholly true, and in no existing legislature in the world is it even 
half true at this day. Public business of this sort is so vast and 
so complicated that no assembly can give it all a fair considera- 
tion. To remedy this trouble we have the committee system, 



IN THE ASCENDANT.— ON THE MILITARY COMMITTEE. 173 

whereby special study by a few informs the many who rely upon 
their reports and merely pass upon their recommendations. 

A member of Congress can not be judged by the figure he presents 
on the floor of the House. He may say nothing there, and yet be 
author of important measures the mere public advocacy of which 
is making some other man a national reputation. James A. Gar- 
field was, from the first of his Congressional career, a leader in 
debate; but the story would be only half told if mention were 
omitted of the wonderful industry displayed by him on the vari- 
ous great committees where his abilities gave him place. 

When the Thirty-Eighth Congress opened, the war was not yet 
ended — a fiict which many an uttercr of unfulfilled prophecy and 
many a broken heart deplored. The most important committee 
of all was still the Military Committee. It was composed as fol- 
lows: Robert C. Schenck, of Ohio; John F. Farnsworth, of Illi- 
nois; George H. Yeaman, of Kentucky; James A. Garfield, of 
Ohio ; Benjamin Loan, of Missouri ; Moses F. Odell, of New 
York ; Henry C. Deniing, of Connecticut ; F. W. Kellogg, of 
Michigan ; Archibald McAllister, of Pennsylvania. 

Although Garfield's name comes fourth here, he really was in- 
tended as second by the Chairman. Mr. Schenck had requested 
Speaker Colfax to put him on, under a belief that he would be 
an invaluable help to himself. "We have been several times re- 
quired to notice a happy faculty which Garfield had of inspiring 
the faith in himself of those with whom he came in contact, by 
some striking act which showed them that he was not an ordinary 
man. This was not intentional, but simply the spontaneous shin- 
ing forth of light which was in the man. Almost the first session 
of the Committee on Military Affairs brought out just such an 
incident : 

It had then been only a short time since the science of anaes- 
thetics had grown into some importance by the use of chloroform 
and ether. In the hospitals of the army it was very common. 
As is usual with inventions and discoveries, there was a struggle 
going on for the profit and honor of the discovery. Dr. INIorton, 
a dentist, and others, were petitioning Congress, each as the dis- 



r> >1 



> 174 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

coverer of chloroform, for some kind of appropriation or arrange- 
ment by which they might be rewarded for the services they had 
done for our sokliers in thus alleviating their suiFerings. The 
petitions were referred to this committee. The members all, ex- 
cept Garfield, declined to investigate it, on the ground that they 
knew nothing about such an obscure topic. Garfield only ob- 
served that he thought the claim remarkable. Not knowing what 
else to do, the Chairman referred it to him, expecting not to hear 
of it again. 

At the next meeting he had a scientific and thoroughly written 
report ready, exhausting the whole subject. On request, the mat- 
ter was explained. Garfield had a way of supplementing his reg- 
ular line of studies by having always some unusual and out-of-the- 
way topic on hand to amuse his leisure hours. Not long before 
this he had accidentally come across a book on anaesthesia, and 
his investigations had made him ready for the unforeseen report 
in committee. All knowledge is useful. After this the committee 
was not afraid of strange topics. They were given over to the man 
who knew anaesthesia, and then they considered the subject set- 
tled. As one man said, — " Good Lord ! what would he not know?" 

General Garfield's time was now devoted to public business. 
Every subject likely to come before his committee was investi- 
gated through all the avenues of information. He set himself a 
wide course of reading on finance, on constitutional law, and a 
great group of kindred subjects. These were studied in the Gar- 
field way, which was to read all the literature he could find on a 
topic, or that could in any way affect the discussion thereof. It 
was this prodigious labor, matching his capacity for keeping the 
run of what would have overwhelmed most men with confusion, 
that made him at the same time a remarkably ready and a won- 
derfully reliable man, either in committee or as a speaker on the 
floor of the House. 

General Garfield had not been in Congress two weeks before 
his occasional brief statements began to attract attention. Of 
course it was not till after a considerable period that he became a 
recognized leader; but his force began to be felt very soon, and 



IN THE ASCENDANT.— THE BOUNTY QUESTION. 175 

grew every clay until, by steady develoj)mciit of his abilities and 
his influence, he finally reached the summit of power, as leader of 
his party in the Lower House of Congress. 

We have seen that he was not a politician in the popular meaning 
of the word. He had been sent to Congress rather against than with 
his inclinations, and was above posturing and plotting for reelection. 
Even after he had reluctantly given up his commission as Major- 
General in the army, he was ready to return on call. In fact, he 
did once almost determine on going back. General Thomas, having 
succeeded Rosecrans in his command, wrote a private letter asking 
Garfield to accept the command of a corps in his army. The offer 
was tempting, and duty seemed to point the way. Mr. Lincoln, 
however, was having trouble to get his measures through Con- 
gress, and needed support. On his statement that Garfield would 
confer a personal favor by remaining where he was, the change 
was not made. 

This was not the kind of man to stultify himself for the sake 
of public favor; and therefore it is not surprising to find his 
first speech on record opposed to the whole House. It was on 
the " Bounty Question." At this time* in the war, volunteering 
had become so rare a thing that new measures had to be devised 
to keep up the ever-dwindling ranks of the army. Two methods 
were advocated. One was to draft men forcibly, and put them 
into the service; the other was to induce men to volunteer by 
payment of a bonus for enlistment. Out of these two principles 
a hybrid policy had been formed, resulting in the Conscription 
Act, of March 3, 1863. This act provided for a draft, but allowed 
a commutation in money, which was fixed at three hundred dol- 
lars. In addition, thirteen exceptions were allowed by which the 
draft could be escaped. To compensate for these losses, three hun- 
dred dollars bounty money was given to every raw recruit, and 
four hundred dollars to every reenlisted veteran. The result of all 
which was a rapidly decreasing army. The Government urged 
stronger measures; and it was before these measures had been 
perfected that an incident occurred in which General Garfield first 
indicated his opinions on the subject. 



- 176 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

According to a law passed, the bounties above mentioned could 
be paid only up to January 5, 1864. On January 6th, the Military 
Committee reported a joint resolution to continue this limit over 
till March 1st. Mr. Garfield did not approve of the resolution, 
although every man in the House seemed against him. His rea- 
sons are given in the Congressional Globe, wherein the following 
is reported : 

Mr. Garfield. — " Mr. Speaker, I regret that I was not able to 
meet with the Military Committee when this resolution was under con- 
sideration. I did not reach the city until a few hours before the House 
met this morning; but if I understand the matter correctly from the 
public journals, the request of the President and the War Department 
was to continue the payment of bounties until the 1st of February 
next ; but the resolution before the House proposes to extend the pay- 
ment until the 1st of March. And while the President asks us to 
continue the payment of bounties to veteran volunteers only, the reso- 
lution extends it to all volunteers, whether veterans or raw recruits. 
If the resolution prevails, it seems to me we shall swamp the finances 
of the Government before the 1st of March arrives. I can not consent 
to a measure which authorizes the expenditure of so vast a sum as 
will be expended under this resolution, unless it be shown absolutely 
indispensable to the work of filling up the army. I am anxious that 
veterans should volunteer, and that liberal bounties should be paid to 
them. But if we extend the payment to all classes of volunteers for 
two months to come, I fear we shall swam]) the Government. 

"Before I vote for this resolution, I desire to know whether the Gov- 
ernment is determined to abandon the draft. If it be its policy to raise 
an army solely by volunteering and paying bounties, we have one line 
of policy to pursue. If the conscription law is to be any thing but a 
dead letter on the statute book, our line of policy is a very diflferent 
one. I ask the gentleman from Illinois to inform me what course is to 
be adopted. I am sorry to see in this resolution the indication of a timid 
and vascillating course. It is unworthy the dignity of our Govern- 
ment and our army to use the conscription act as a scarecrow, and the 
bounty system as a bait, to alternately scare and coax men into the army. 

"Let us give liberal bounties to veteran soldiers who may reenlist, 
and for raw recruits use the draft." 



IN THE ASCENDANT.— DISSATISFIED CONSTITUENTS. 177^' 

After some further discussion the vote was taken, resulting in 
yeas 112, nays 2. Mr. Grinnell, of loAva, marie the second nega- 
tive, changing his vote after Garfield had voted. 

Soon afterwards a letter came to General Garfield, signed by 
twenty of his constituents, censuring his action, and demanding 
his resignation. They were only answered that he held their let- 
ter, and that within a year they would all agree with what he had 
done. Before the year closed, there was a cross opjiosite each 
man's name, denoting the fulfilhiient of the General's prophecv. 

This action also attracted the admiring attention of Salmon P. 
Chase, who soon afterward congratulated him, but at the same time 
coupled his praises with a good piece of advice. Mr. Chase liked 
to see a man exhibit great firmness, but warned his young friend 
that such antagonism to his party would better be indulged spar- 
ingly. It would seem that the advice was unnecessary to Garfield, 
however, as he was not a factious man. He simply had the courage 
of his convictions. On this point we find that Garfield never fails 
to meet our expectations, no matter what the opposition : 

" But, like a rock unmoved, a rock that braves 
The raging tempest and the rising waves, 
Propp'd on himself, he stands." 

Legislation on the enrollment of soldiers was yet to come, which 
should be more severe than any we had known. The system of 
bounties proved a failure. "SVe had attempted coercion on the 
States, and the only way to succeed was by further coercion of our 
own citizens. It was a hard thing to come to, and the people were 
unwilling. Congressmen Avere afraid of the coming fall election 
of 18G4. Finally, early in June, Mr. Lincoln sought an interview 
with the Military Committee. He told them that the army had 
in it only three-quarters of a million men ; three hundred and eighty 
tliousand were within a few months of the end of their term of 
service. These places must be filled, and a law framed for the pur- 
pose at once. The committee expressed its opinion of the political 
danger: "Mr. Lincoln, such a law will defeat you for President." 
Then a light shone out from that great homely countenance, tlic 



178 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

tall form was drawn grandly to its full height, as the answer was 
given. Mr. Lincoln said that his business was to put down the 
Rebellion, no matter what the danger. Grant and Sherman were 
on the verge of victory; their strength must be kept uji, and the 
struggle ended quickly. 

Accordingly, a bill was prepared after the President's own plan. 
Many of the draft exemptions of the existing law were taken away 
by it ; commutation-money was no longer to be received, and every 
possible facility was to be aiforded for compelling men to enlist. 
But pedce Democrats, united with cowardly Congressmen of the 
Republican party, together voted out the most effective clauses of 
the new bill. 

This would never do. The friends of the bill reconstructed it, 
and determined to put it through. On the 21st of June, the effort 
was made. General Garfield was, perhaps,.more intensely wrought 
up on the subject, than any man except Lincoln; and he made a 
great speech, a speech replete with learning, logic, and eloquence. 
This bill was the result of conditions in national affairs which he 
had long foreseen; he had prophesied, at the time of his vote 
against extending bounties, that the end of such extension would 
be ruin to the Union cause. That ruin was now impending, and 
all his energies were bent toward averting the evil. Hear this 
closing appeal: 

" I ask gentlemen who oppose this repeal, why they desire to make it 
easy for citizens to escape from military duty ? Is it a great hardship 
to serve one's country? Is it a disgraceful service? Will you, by your 
action here, say to the soldiers in the field, ' This is a disreputable busi- 
ness; you have been deceived; you have been caught in a trap, and we 
will make no law to put any body else in it'? Do you thus treat your 
soldiers in the field? They are proud of their voluntary service, and if 
there be one wish of the army paramount to all others, one message 
more earnest than all the others which they send back to you, it is that 
you will aid in filling up their battle-thinned ranks by a draft which 
will compel lukewarm citizens who prate against the war to go into the 
field. They ask that you will not expend large bounties in paying men 
of third-rate patriotism, while they went with no other l)ounty than their 



IN THE ASCENDANT.— SPEECH UPON CONFISCATION. 179 /< 

love of country, to which they gave their young lives a free offering, but 
that you will compel these eleventh-hour men to take their chances in 
the field beside them. Let us grant their request, and, by a steady and 
persistent efibrt, we shall, in the end, be it near or remote, be it in one 
year or ten, crown the nation with victory and enduring peace." 

In the sequel, this bill passed; a grand reinforcement of five 
hundred thousand men soon secured the supremacy of the Union, 
and Father Abraham was thus enabled to finish his immortal 
work. 

Earlv in the first session of the Thirty-Eighth Congress, the 
subject of confiscation was pretty thoroughly discussed. House 
Resolution No. 18 was offered, so amending a resolution of the 
preceding Congress that no punishment or proceeding under it 
should be so construed as to make a forfeiture of the estate of 
the offender, except during his life. Out of this little motion there 
grew a great crop of controversy, and among others. General 
Garfield took part. His main speech, the first lengthy address he 
ever made in Congress, was delivered on January 28, 1864. Mr. 
Finck, of Ohio, had just sat down at the close of a long set 
speech, when Garfield arose and began in these words: 

"Mr. Speaker, I had not intended to ask the attention of the House 
or to occupy its time on this question of confiscation at all, but some 
things have been said, touching its military aspects, which make it proper 
for me to trespass upon the patience of the House. Feeling that, in some 
small degree, I represent on this floor tlie Army of the Republic, I am 
the more emboldened to speak to this subject before us. 

"I have been surprised that in so lengthy and able a discussion, so 
little reference has been made to the merits of the resolution itself. In 
the wide range of discussion, the various theories of the legal and polit- 
ical status of the rebellious States have been examined. It is, perhaps, 
necessary that we take ground upon that question, as preliminary to the 
discussion of the resolution itself. Two theories, widely differing from 
each other, have been proposed; but I can not consider either of them as 
wholly correct. I can not agree with the distinguished gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Stevens,) who acknowledges that these States are out 
of the Union, and now constitute a foreign peoj)le ; nor can I, on the 



/ 180 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

other hand, agree with those who believe that the insurgent States are 
not only in the Union, but have lost none of their rights under the Con- 
stitution and laws of the Union. 

""When the Government of the United States declared that we were 
in a state of war, the rebel States came under the laws of war. By their 
acts of rebellion and war, they had swept away every vestige of their 
civil and political rights under the Constitution of the United States. 
Their obligations still remained ; but the reciprocal rights, which usually 
accompany obligations, they had forfeited. 

"The question then lies open before us: In a state of war, under the 
laws of war, is this resolution legal and politic ? I insist, Mr. Speaker, 
that the question involved in the resolution before this House, is whether 
this Government, in its exercise of its rights of a belligerent under the 
laws of war, can not punish these rebels and confiscate their estates, both 
personal and real, for life and forever. That is the only question 
before us. 

"I conclude by returning once more to the resolution before us. Let 
no weak sentiments of misplaced sympathy deter us from inaugurating a 
measure, which will cleanse our nation and make it the fit home of free- 
dom and glorious manhood. Let us not despise the severe wisdom of 
our revolutionary fathers when they served their generation in a similar 
way. Let the Republic drive from its soil the traitors that have con- 
spired against its life, as God and His angels drove Satan and his host 
from heaven. He was not too merciful to be just, and to hurl down in 
chains and everlasting darkness the 'traitor angel' who rebelled against 
Him." 

In these clear w'ords we may fitid already a development of that 
independent, yet always moderate way of regarding things which 
no reader of Garfield's great speeches of later date can fail to 
notice. While other men wasted time in reasoning on the words 
of the Constitution, and their eifect on the status of the Southern 
States, this incisive intellect cut right through all extremes, and 
from a plain view of the facts, he said that the South was not out 
of the Union ; and although it was in the Union, it did not have 
" the reciprocal rights which usually accompany obligations." And 
this was statesmanship. 



IN THE ASCENDANT.— SPEECH OF THE SESSION. 181 

In March, 1864, the Committee on Afilitary Affairs reported 
a bill "to declare certain roads military roads, and post roads, and 
to regulate commerce." Its principal object, as far as the Gov- 
ernment was concerned, was to enlarge its facilities of communi- 
cation between AVashington, Philadelphia, and New York. The 
only existing postal route between the commercial Capital and 
the political Capital, was by the Camden and Amboy Railroad. 
This bill was presented on petition of the Raritan and Delaware 
Bay Railroad Company, asking that it be given similar rights to 
those held by the Camden and Amboy; which latter road of 
course used all its influence to -defeat the measure. Both the 
power and the duty of Congress to pass the bill were violently 
assailed and denied. 

Mr. Garfield favored its passage, and made a speech on the sub- 
ject which ran through parts of two days, March 24 and 31. 
This address was very powerful, and Avas called by some mem- 
bers " the speech of the session." 

The main question, as raised by the friends of that road them- 
selves, was whether Congress could rightfully interfere with a 
State railroad monopoly which did not confine its operations 
within the limits of that State. The Governor of New Jersey had 
issued a proclamation referring to this matter, and speaking of his 
State as "sovereign." These were but the first mutterings of a 
great storm which was to follow. Their significance was recog- 
nized. 

It was to these points that Mr. Garfield addressed himself The 
Camden and Amboy Company he named as a sweeping and com- 
plete monopoly, made so by the State of New Jersey. The State's 
right to create corporations was undoubted. But it could have 
no sovereignty sufficient to destroy the power of the United States, 
and especially so outside of the State limits. Equal rights with 
this monopoly should be given to the Raritan and Delaware Bay 
Company at any time on petition, and certainly now when the fa- 
cilities for transportation were not equal to the needs of the Gov- 
ernment. 



%1 

/- 182 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

Surely the Government, at such a time as this, had paramount 
authority to provide for its own necessities. 

On the 8th of April, 1864, the House of Representatives re- 
solved itself into the Committee of the Whole upon the State of 
the Union, whereupon Mr, Alexander Long, of Cincinnati, Ohio, 
took the floor, and, in a speech of much bitterness, arraigned the 
administration, not for its conduct of the war, but for carrvinsr on 
the war at all. "An unconstitidional war can only be carried on in 
an unconstitutional manner,''^ said Mr. Long. His demand now 
was for jjeace. This was the first sound of Democratic prepara- 
tion for the Presidential election^ the key-note of their campaign. 

Mr. Long said : 

"Mr. Chairman, I speak to-day for the preservation of the Govern- 
ment. In the independence of a representative of the people I intend to 
proclaim the deliherate convictions of my judgment in this fearful hour 
of the country's peril. 

" The brief period of three short years has produced a fearful change 
in this free, happy, and prosperous government, — so pure in its restraiu- 
ments upon personal liberty, and so gentle in its demands upon the re- 
sources of the people, that the celebrated Humboldt, after traveling 
through the country, on his return to Europe said, ' The American people 
have a government which you neither see nor feel.' So different is it 
now, and so great the change, that the inquiry might well be made 
to-day, ' Are Ave not in Constantinople, in St. Petersburg, in Vienna, in 
Rome, or in Paris?' Military governors and their provost marshals over- 
ride the laws, and the echo of the armed heel rings forth as clearly now 
in America as in France or Austria ; and the President sits to-day guarded 
by armed soldiers at every approach leading to the Executive INEansion. 
So far from crushing the rebellion, three years have passed away, and 
from the day on which the conflict began, up to the present hour, 
the Confederate army has not been forced beyond the sound of their guns 
from the dome of the Capitol in which we are assembled." 

The remainder of the speech continued in the same spirit. The 
war could not be put down. Moreover, it was wrong and ought 
not to be put down : 

"Can the Union be restored by war? I answer most unhesitatingly 



IN THE ASCENDANT.— A FIRE IN THE REAR. 183 

and deliberately : No, never. War is final and eternal separation. My 
first and highest ground against its further prosecution is, that it is wrong. 
It is a violation of the Constitution and of the fundamental principles on 
which this Union was founded. My second objection is, that as a policy, 
it is not reconstructive, but desiructive, and will, if continued, result speed- 
ily in the destruction of the Government and the loss of civil liberty, to 
both the North and the South, and it ought therefore to immediately 
cease " 

These were the sentiments of a Democratic politician in Con- 
gress; they would be scattered broadcast over the whole land. 
Some of the arguments were specious ; they would be echoed from a 
thousand platforms during the summer. It was incumbent on the 
opposition to furnish a speedy and strong reply. When Mr. Long 
took his seat, Mr. Garfield arose and said : 

"Mr. Chairman: I should be obliged to you if you would direct the 
sergeant-at-arms to bring a white flag and plant it in the aisle between 
myself and my colleague who has just addressed you. 

"I recollect on one occasion when two great armies stood face to face, 
that under a white flag just planted, I apj^-oached a company of men 
dressed in the uniform of the rebel Confederacy, and reached out ray 
hand to one of the number, and told him I respected him as a brave 
man. Though he Avore the emblems of disloyalty and treason, still, un- 
derneath his vestments I beheld a brave and honest soul. 

"I would produce that scene here this afternoon. I say, ivere there 
such a flag of truce — but God forbid me if I should do it under any 
other circumstances — I would reach out this right hand and ask that 
gentleman to take it; because I honor his bravery and his honesty. I 
believe what has just fallen from his lips are the honest sentiments of 
his heart, and in uttering it he has made a new epoch in the history of 
this war ; he has done a new thing under the sun ; he has done a brave 
thing. It is braver than to face cannon and musketry, and I honor him 
for his candor and frankness. 

"But now, I ask you to take away the flag of truce; and I will go 
back in.^ide the Union lines and speak of what he has done. I am re- 
minded by it of a distinguislied cliaractcr in Paradise Lost. "When he 
had rebelled against the glory of God, and 'led away a third part of 



184 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

heaven's sous, conjured against the Highest;' when, after terrible battles 
in which mountains and hills were hurled down ' nine times the space 
that measures day and night,' and after the terrible fall lay stretched 
prone on the burning lake, — Satan lifted up his shattered bulk, crossed 
the abyss, looked down into Paradise, and, soliloquizing, said : 

'Which way I fly is hell, myself am hell;' 

it seems to me in that utterance he expressed the very sentiments to 
which you have just listened; uttered by one not less brave, malign, and 
fallen. This man gathers up the meaning of this great contest, the 
philosophy of the moment, the prophecies of the hour, and, in sight of 
the paradise of victory and peace, utters them all in this wail of terrible 
despair, ' Which way I fly is hell.' He ought to add, ' Myself am hell.' 

"For the first time in the history of this contest, it is proposed in this 
hall to give up the struggle, to abandon the war, and let treason run 
riot through the land! I will, if I can, dismiss feeling from my heart 
and try to consider only what bears upon the logic of the speech to which 
we have just listened. 

" First of all, the gentleman tells us that the right of secession is a 
constitutional right. I do not propose to enter into the argument. I 
have hitherto expressed myself on State sovereignty and State rights, 
of which this proposition of his is the legitimate child. 

" But the gentleman takes higher ground — and in that I agree with 
him, namely, that five million or eight million people possess the right 
of revolution, (xrant it; we agree there. If fifty-nine men can mnke a 
revolution successful, they have the right of revolution. If one State 
wishes to break its connection with the Federal Government, and does it 
by force, maintaining itself, it is an independent State. If the eleven 
Southern States are resolved and determined to leave the Union, to se- 
cede, to revolutionize, and can maintain that revolution by force, they 
have revolutionary right to do so. I stand on that platform with the 
gentleman. 

"And now the question comes, is it our constitutional duty to let them 
do it? That is the question. And in order to reach it, I beg to call 
your attention, not to argument, but to the condition of affairs that 
would result from such action — the mere statement of which becomes 
the strongest possible argument. What does this gentleman propose? 
Where will he draw the line of division? If the rebels carry into seces- 



IN THE ASCENDANT.— THE RFTUEN SHOT. 185 

Bion what they desire to carry; if their revolution envelops as many States 
as they intend it shall envelop; if they draw the line where Isham G. 
Harris, the rebel governor of Tennessee, in the rebel camp near our lines, 
told Mr. Vallandigham tliey would draw it, — along the line of the Ohio 
and Potomac, — if they make good their statement to him, that they will 
never consent to any other line, then I ask, what is the thing the gen- 
tleman pro})oses to do? 

"He proposes to leave to the United States a territory reaching from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific, and one hundred miles wide in the center! 
From Wellsville on the Oliio to Cleveland on the lakes, is one hundred 
miles. I ask you, Mr. Chairman, if there be a man here so insane as to 
supi^ose that the American people will allow their magnificent national 
proportions to be shorn to so deformed a shape as this? 

"Suppose the policy of the gentleman were adopted to-day. Let the 
order go forth ; sound the 'recall' on your bugles, and let it ring from 
Texas to the far Atlantic, and tell the armies to come back. Call the 
victorious legions back over the battle-field of blood forever now dis- 
graced. Call them back over the territory which they have conquered. 
Call them back, and let the minions of secession chase them with deri- 
sion and jeers as they come. And then tell them that the man across 
the aisle, from the free State of Ohio, gave birth to the monstrous 
proposition. 

"Mr. Chairman, if such a word should be sent forth through the 
armies of the Union, the wave of terrible vengeance that would sweep 
back over this land could never find a parallel in the records of history. 
Almost in the moment of final victory, the 'recall' is sounded by a 
craven people not desiring freedom. We ought, every man, to be made 
a slave should we sanction such a sentiment. 

"Tlie geutleman has told us there is no such thing as coercion justifi- 
ul)l(t under the Constitution. I ask him for one moment to reflect, that 
no statute ever was enforced without coercion. It is the basis of every 
law in the universe, — God's law as well as man's. A law is no law with- 
out coercion behind it. When a man has murdered his brother, coercion 
takes the murderer, tries him, and hangs him. When you levy your 
taxes, coercion secures their collection ; it follows the shadow of the thief 
and brings him to justice; it accompanies your diplomacy to foreign 
courts, and backs a declaration of the nation's right by a pledge of the 
nation's power. Again, he tells us that oaths taken under the anniesty 



186 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

proclamation are good for nothing. The oath of Galileo was not binding 
upon him. I am reminded of another oath that was taken ; but perhaps 
it was an oath on the lips alone to which the heart made no response. 

" I remember to have stood in a line of nineteen men on that carpet 
yonder on the first day of the session, and I remember that another oath 
was passed round and each member signed it as provided by laAV, utterly 
repudiating the rebellion and its pretenses. Does that gentleman not 
blush to speak of Galileo's oath? Was not his own its counterpart? 

" He says that the Union can never be restored because of the terri- 
ble hatred engendered by the war. To prove it, he quotes what some 
Southern man said a few years ago, that he knew no hatred between 
people in the Avorld like that between the North and the South. And 
yet that North and South have been one nation for eighty-eight years ! 
*' Have we seen in this contest any thing more bitter than the wars 
of the Scottish border ? Have we seen any thing more bitter than those 
terrible feuds in the days of Edward, when England and Scotland were 
the deadliest foes on earth ? And yet for centuries those countries have 
been cemented in an indissoluble union that has made the British nation 
one of the proudest of the earth ! 

" I said a little while ago that I accepted the proposition of the gen- 
tleman that rebels had a right of revolution ; and the decisive issue 
between us and the rebellion is, whether they shall revolutionize and 
destroy, or we shall subdue and preserve. We take the latter ground. 
We take the common weapons of war to meet them; and if these be 
not sufficient, I would take any element which will overwlielm and 
destroy ; I would sacrifice the dearest and best beloved ; I would take 
all the old sanctions of law and the Constitution and fling them to the 
winds, if necessary, rather than let the nation be broken in pieces and 
its people destroyed with endless ruin. 

"What is the Constitution that these gentlemen are perpetually fling- 
in^ in our fices whenever Ave desire to strike hard blows against the 
rebellion ? It is the production of the American people. They made 
it; and the creator is mightier than the creature. The power which 
made the Constitution can also make other instruments to do its great 
work in the day of dire necessity." 

'The Presidential campaign of 1864 involved, in its tremendous 
issues, the fate of a Republic. All the forces which had ever an- 



IN THE ASCENDANT.— THE WADE-DAYIS MANIFESTO. 187 

tagonizcd the war for the Union were arrayed on the one side ; 
those which demanded that the war be vigorously pursued until 
rebellion was forever put down, withstood them on the other side. 
It Avas a hand-to-hand struggle. Garfield took the stump and ably 
advocated the Republican cause. He traveled nearly eight thou- 
sand miles, and made sixty -five speeches. Late in the season his 
constituents met to nominate a Congressman. Garfield was very 
popular in the district, which had been pleased with his ability 
and the patriotic spirit of his conduct. 

But, after the adjournment of Congress, an incident occurred 
which caused trouble in the Republican ranks, and seemed likely 
to drive him out of the field. The subject of the readmission 
of conquered Southern States to the full enjoyment of their politi- 
cal rights, had o'ccupied the attention of the Thirty-Eighth Con- 
gress ; and that body, on the day of its adjournment, had passed and 
sent for the President's approval, a bill providing for the govern- 
ment of such States. Mr. Lincoln had let the bill go over un- 
signed till after adjournment; and soon issued a proclamation 
referring to the subject, which offended many of the friends of 
the bill. Among these were Ben. Wade and Winter Davis, who 
issued to the public a reply to Mr. Lincoln, censuring him in very 
severe language. The President was therein charged with favor- 
ing a policy subversive of human liberty, unjust to the friends of 
the administration, and dangerous to the Republic. This Wade- 
Davis manifesto caused a great furore of excitement. Wade and 
Davis were denounced ; the people would hear nothing against 
Mr. Lincoln. 

When the convention met at Warren, Mr. Garfield w^as sent 
for. He had been charged by some with the authorship of the 
Wade-Davis paper, and by many with holding to its views. When 
he appeared before them, the chairman stated to him the charge, 
with a strong intimation that if he cared for a renomination he 
must declare war against all disagreement with the President's 
policy. 

Then the young general and statesman arose, and stepped for- 
ward to face the assembly. They listened to hear their former 



188 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

hero explain away the terrible opinion attributed to him, and, like 
the fawning politician he was not, trim his sails according to the 
popular pleasure. 

Mr. Garfield said that he was not the author of the manifesto 
which the chairman had mentioned. Only of late had he read 
that great protest. But, having read, he approved ; and only re- 
gretted that there had been any necessity for such a thing. The 
facts alleged were truly asserted. This was his belief. If they 
preferred a representative not of the same mind as himself, they 
should by all means hasten to nominate their man. 

Having somewhat haughtily spoken these brave words, Garfield 
took his hat and strode out, with the intention of returning to his 
hotel. As he reached the street, a great shout was heard. " That 
sound, no doubt, means my defeat and another's nomination," he 
muttered. But, with nothing to regret, he went his way. 

Meanwhile, what did the convention actually do ? They were 
dumb with astonishment for a moment ; a heroic deed had been 
done before them, and admiration for the chief actor was the up- 
permost sentiment in every heart. Then a young man from Ash- 
tabula called out : " Mr. Chairman, I say that the man who has 
courage enough to oppose a convention like that ought not to be 
discarded. I move that James A. Garfield be nominated by ac- 
clamation." Without a dissenting voice it was done. When elec- 
tion day came, his majority was nearly twelve thousand. 

The session of Congress which met in December of 1864 was 
marked by the great debates on the Thirteenth Amendment to the 
Constitution, which was presented to the States for ratification on 
the first of February, 1865. Perhaps the strongest opposition to 
that amendment was from George H. Pendleton, of Ohio. He 
spoke against it on the 13th of January. The chief argument was 
that purely State institutions could not properly be interfered with 
by the Nation, without the consent of the State or States concerned. 
That this right of a State was reserved in the spirit of the Con- 
stitution, just as equal representation in the Senate was secured, 
beyond recall, by the letter of that instrument. 

To this speech Mr. Garfield made a reply. So much of this 



IN THE ASCENDANT.— DENOUNCES SLAVERY. 189 

reply as touched upon the constitutional power of making such an 
amendment may be given further on ; the remainder is such a de- 
nunciation of slavery, as an institution, as has rarely been equaled 
by any of those eloquent men why devoted their lives to its ex- 
termination. 

On taking the floor, Mr. Garfield began : 

" J/r. Speaker: We sliall never know why slavery dies so hard in this 
Republic and in this hall till we know why sin is long-lived and Satan 
is immortal. With marvelous tenacity of existence, it has outlived the 
expectations of its friends and the hopes of its enemies. It has been de- 
clared here and elsew^iere to be in the several stages of mortality — 
wounded, moribund, dead. The question was raised by my colleague 
[Mr. Cox] yesterday whether it was indeed dead, or only in a troubled 
sleep. I know of no better illustration of its condition than is found in 
Sallust's admirable history of the great conspirator, Catiline, who, when 
his final battle was fought and lost, his army broken and scattered, was 
found, far in advance of his own troops, lying among the dead enemies 
of Home, yet breathing a little, but exhibiting in his countenance all the 
ferocity of spirit which had characterized his life. So, sir, this body of 
slavery lies before us among the dead enemies of the Republic, mortally 
Avounded, impotent in its fiendish wickedness, but with its old ferocity of 
look, bearing the unmistakable marks of its infernal origin. 

" Who does not remember that thirty years ago — a short period in the 
life of a nation — but little could be said with impunity in these halls on 
the subject of slavery? We can hardly realize that this is the same peo- 
ple and these the same halls, where now scarcely a man can be found 
who Avill venture to do more than falter out an apology for slavery, pro- 
testing in the same breath that he has no love for the dying tyrant. 
None, I believe, but that man of more than supernal boldness, from the 
city of New York [Mr. Fernando Wood], has ventured, this session, to 
raise his voice in favor of slavery for its own sake. He still sees in its 
f-atures the reflection of beauty and divinity, and only he. 'How art 
thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning ! How art tliou 
cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations ! ' ISIany mighty 
men have been slain by thee ; many proud ones have humbled themselves 
at thy feet! All along the coast of our political sea these victims of 
slavery lie like stranded wrecks, broken on the headlands of freedom. 



190 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

How lately did its advocates, with impious boldness, maintain it as God's 
own, to be venerated and cherished as divine? It was another and higher 
form of civilization. It was the holy evangel of America, dispensing its 
mercies to a benighted race, and destined to bear countless blessings to 
the wilderness of the West. In its mad arrogance ir, lifted its hand to 
strike down the fabric of the Union, and since that fatal day it has been a 
' fugitive and a vagabond upon the earth.' Like the spirit that Jesus cast 
out, it lias, since then, ' been seeking rest and finding none.' 

"It has sought in all the corners of the Republic to find some hiding- 
place in which to shelter itself from the death it so richly deserves. 

"It sought an asylum in the untrodden territories of the west, but, 
with a whip of scorj^ions, indignant freemen drove it thence. I do not 
believe that a loyal man can now be found who would consent that it 
should again enter them. It has no hope of harbor there. It found 
no "protection or favor in the hearts or consciences of the freemen of the 
Kepublic, and has fled for its last hope of safety behind the shield of the 
Constitution. We propose to follow it there, and drive it thence, as 
Satan was exiled from heaven. But now, in the hour of its mortal agony, 
in this hall, it has found a defender. 

"My gallant colleague [Mr. Pendleton], for I recognize him as a gallant 
and able man, plants himself at the door of his darling, and bids defiance 
to all assailants. He has followed slavery in its flight, until at last it has 
reached the great temple where liberty is enshrined — the Constitution of 
the United States — and there, in that last retreat, declares that no hand 
shall strike it. It reminds me of that celebrated passage in the great 
Latin poet, in which the serpents of the Ionian sea, when they had de- 
stroyed Laocoon and his sons, fled to the heights of the Trojan citadel and 
coiled their slimy lengths around the feet of the tutelar goddess, and 
were covered by the orb of her shield. So, under the guidance of my 
colleague [Mr. Pendleton], slavery, gorged with the blood often thousand 
freemen, has climbed to the high citadel of American nationality, and 
coiled itself securely, as he believes, around the feet of the statue of 
Justice and under the shield of the Constitution of the United States. We 
desire to follow it even there, and kill it beside the very altar of liberty. 
Its blood can never make atonement for the least of its crimes. 

"But the gentleman has gone further. He is not content that the 
snaky sorceress shall be merely under the protection of the Constitution. 
In his view, by a strange metamorphosis, slavery becomes an invisible 



IN THE ASCENDANT.— WHY SLAVEEY SHOULD DIE. 191 

essence, and takes up its abode in the very grain and fiber of tlie Consti- 
tution, and when we would strike it ho says, 'I can not point out any 
express clause that prohibits you from destroying slavery; l)ut I find a 
prohibition in the intent and meaning of the Constitution. I go under 
the surface, out of sight, into the very genius of it, and in that invisible 
domain slavery is enshrined, and there is no power in the Republic to 
drive it thence.' 

" But he has gone even deeper than the spirit and intent of the Con- 
stitution. He has announced a discovery, to which I am sure no other 
statesman will lay claim. He has found a domain where slavery can no 
more be reached by human law than the life of Satan by the sword of 
Michael. He has marked the hither boundary of tliis newly discovered 
continent, in his response to the question of the gentleman from Iowa. 

" Not finding any thing in the words and phrases of the Constitution 
that forbids an amendment abolishing slavery, he goes behind all human 
enactments, and far away among the eternal equities, he finds a primal 
law which overshadows States, nations, and constitutions, as space envel- 
ops the universe, and by its solemn sanctions one human being can hold 
another in perpetual slavery. Surely, human ingenuity has never gone 
farther to protect a malefactor, or defend a crime. I shall make no ar- 
gument with my colleague on this point, for in that high court to which 
he appeals, eternal justice dwells with freedom, and slavery has never 
entered. 

"On the justice of the amendment itself no arguments are necessary. 
The reasons crowd in on every side. To enumerate them would be a 
Avork of superfluity. To me it is a matter of great surprise that gentle- 
men on the other side should wish to delay the death of slavery. I can 
only account for it on the ground of long-continued ftimiliarity and friend- 
ship. I should be glad to hear them say of slavery, their beloved, as did 
the jealous Moor; 

" Yet she must die, else she'll betray more men." 

"Has she not betrayed and slain men enough? Are they not strewn 
over a thousand battle-fields? Is not this Moloch already gorged with the 
bloody feast? Its best friends know that its final hour is fast approach- 
ing. The avenging gods are on its track. Their feet are not now, as 
of old, shod with wool, for slow and stately stepping, but winged, like 
Mercury's, to bear the swift message of vengeance. No human power 
can avert the final catastrophe." 



192 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

Five days after this address, Mr. Garfield, together with Henry- 
Winter Davis, made a lively attack on the War Department. At 
this time the writ of habeas corpus was suspended, and the art of 
imprisoning men without warrant or accusation was reaching a 
high state of perfection. The Carroll and Old Capital prisons were 
full of victims who could not find out why they were thus arbitra- 
rily confined. 

This tyrannical practice having been brought before the commit- 
tee on military affairs, some of them investigated the subject. As a 
result, a resolution was offered calling for a public inquiry, which 
resolution passed. The next day Thaddeus Stevens attempted to 
get it rescinded, whereupon he was met by a fiery speech from Mr. 
Garfield, which saved the resolution ; and in a few days there was 
a general freeing of all prisoners against whom no sufficient charges 
could be made. 

In his sjieech, Mr. Garfield graphically told of the great in- 
justice which was being done, especially to men Avho had served 
the country in the field. One of these was a colonel in the Union 
army, who had been wounded and discharged from the service, 
but now, for some unknown reason, perhaps maliciously, had been 
deprived of his liberty. Mr. Garfield had been an admirer of 
Stanton, and recognized the great Secretary's ability and patriot- 
ism; but this could not save either him or his subordinates from 
just censures. 

This action was the occasion of much admiring notice from the 
public, and even from Stanton himself. For such was the reputed 
roughness of Stanton's temper that few men ever had enough 
temerity to criticise him. 

On the night of April 14, 1865, the war-heated blood of this 
nation was frozen with sudden horror at a deed which then had 
no parallel in American history — the murder of Abraham Lincoln. 

That night General Garfield was in New York Citv. 

In the early morning hours a colored servant came to the door 
of his room at the hotel, and in a heart-broken voice announced 
that Mr. Lincoln, the emancipator of his race from bondage, had 
been shot down by a traitor to the country. 



IN THE ASCENDANT.— DEATH OF LINCOLN. 193 /, 

Morning came; but dark were the liours whose broken wings 
labored to bring the light of day. Soon the streets were filled 
with people. Every body seemed to have come out and left the 
houses empty. It was not a holiday, and yet all seemed to be 
doing nothing. No business was transacted, yet mirth and laugh- 
ter were unheard. Such silence and such multitudes never before 
were met together. 

Garfield wandered out into the streets, and noted these omjnous 
appearances. The city was like Paris, just before its pavements 
are to be torn up for a barricade battle in some revolutionary 
outbreak. 

Great posters, fixed in prominent places, called for a nine o'clock 
meeting of citizens at MVsdl Street Exchange Building. The news- 
paper bulletins, black, brief recorders of fate as they are, were 
surrounded with crushing crowds waiting for the latest word from 
Washington. 

Arriving in the region of Wall Street, General Garfield made 
his way through the mass of men who surrounded the Exchange 
Building, until he reached the balcony. Here Benjamin F. But^- 
ler was making an address. Fifty thousand people were crowding 
toward that central figure, from whose left arm waved a yard of 
crape which told the terrible story to multitudes who could not 
hear his words. 

General Butler ceased speaking. What should be done with 
this great crowd of desperate men? What would they do with 
themselves ? 

Lincoln was dead ; word came that Seward, with his throat cut, 
wa,s dying. Men feared some dread conspiracy which would red- 
den the North with innocent blood, and hand over the Government 
to treason and traitors. 

Two men in this crowd said that " Lincoln ought to have been 

shot long ago." A minute later one of them was dead ; the other 

lay in the ditch, bleeding and dying. Thousands of men clutched, 

in their pockets, revolvers and knives, to be used on whoever said 

a word against the martyred President. 

Suddenly from the extreme right wing of the crowd rose a cry: 
13 



194 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

" The World ! " " The office of the World ! " " The World ! "—and 
the mass began to move as one man toward that office. Where 
would this end? Destruction of property, loss of life, violence 
and anarchy, were in that movement, and apparently no human 
power could now check its progress. 

Then a man stepped to the front of the balcony and held his 
arm aloft. His commanding attitude arrested universal attention. 
Perhaps he was going to give them the latest news. They waited. 
But while they listened, the voice — it was the voice of General 
Garfield — only said: 

"Fellow-citizens: Clouds and darkness are around about Him! His 
pavilion is dark waters and thick clouds of the skies ! Justice and judg- 
ment are the establishment of His throne! Mercy and truth shall go 
before His face! Fellow-citizens: God reigns, and the Government at 
Washington still hves !" 

The tide of popular fury was stayed. The impossible had 
been accomplished. " The World " w^as saved ; but that was not 
much. The safety of a great city was secured; and that was 
much. 

Other meetings were held in New York City on that memora- 
ble day, and the magnetic speaker of the morning was called out 
again. In the course of an address that afternoon he uttered 
these words: 

" By this last act of madness, it seems as though the Rebellion had 
determined that the President of the soldiers should go with the soldiers 
who have laid down their lives on the battle-field. They slew the noisiest 
and gentlest heart that ever put down a rebellion upon this earth. In 
taking that life they have left the iron hand of the people to fall upon 
them. Love is on the front of the throne of God, but justice and judg- 
ment, with inexorable dread, follow behind; and when law is slighted 
and mercy despised, when they have rejected those who would be their 
best friends, then comes justice with her hoodwinked eyes, and with the 
sword and scales. From every gaping wound of your dead chief, let the 
voice go up from the people to see to it that our house is swept and gar- 
nished. I hasten to say one thing more, fellow-citizens. For mere 



IN THE ASCENDANT.— TEIBUTE TO LINCOLN. 195 X 

vengeance I would do nothing. This nation is too great to look for mere 
revenge. But jor security of the future I would do every thing." 

It is a remarkable fact that when the nation gave expression to 
its sorrow over Lincoln's death, Garfield should have been so nota- 
bly the voice which spoke that sorrow. 

A year passed on. In April of 186G, Congress, busy with the 
important legislation of that period, neglected to remember the 
approaching anniversary. On the morning of April 14, the news- 
papers announced that, according to President Johnson's order, the 
Government offices would be closed that day out of respect to 
murdered Lincoln. 

Congressmen at the breakfast table read this announcement, and 
hurried to the Capitol, inquiring what corresponding action should 
be taken by the two Houses of Congress. 

General Garfield was in the committee room, hard at work on 
the preparation of a bill, when, shortly before time for the House 
to come to order, Speaker Colfax came hurriedly in, saying that 
Mr. Garfield must be in the House directly and move an adjourn- 
ment. At the same time Garfield should make an address appro- 
priate to such an anniversary. That gentleman protested that the 
time was too short, but Colfax insisted, and left the room. 

Remaining there alone for a quarter of an hour, the General 
thought of the tragic event, and what he should say. Is there not 
something weirdly prophetic, to us who live under the reign of 
Arthur, in the picture of that silent man of serious mien and 
thoughtful brow^, sitting alone, and thinking of our first assassinated 
President? 

Just as the clerk finished reading the previous day's Journal of 
the House, Mr. Garfield arose and said : 

"Mr. Speaker: I desire to move that this House do now adjourn; and 
before the vote upon tliat motion is taken, I desire to say a few words. 

" This day, Mr. Speaker, will be sadly memorable so long as this nation 
shall endure, which, God grant, may be ' till the last syllable of recorded 
time,' when the volume of human history shall be sealed uj) and deliv- 
ered to the Omnipotent Judge. 



VC, 196 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

" In all future time, on the recurrence of this day, I doubt not that 
the citizens of this Republic "will meet in solemn assembly to reflect on 
the life and character of Abraham Lincoln, and the awful tragic event 
of April 14, 1865, — an event unparalleled in the history of nations, cer- 
tainly unparalleled in our own. It is eminently proper that this House 
should this day place upon its records a memorial of that event. 

"The last five years have been marked by wonderful developments 
of human character. Thousands of our people before unknown to fame, 
have taken their places in history, crowned with immortal honors. In 
thousands of humble homes are dwelling heroes and patriots whose 
names shall never die. But greatest among all these developments were 
the character and fame of Abraham Lincoln, whose loss the nation stiU 
deplores. His character is aptly described in the words of England's 
great laureate — written thirty years ago — in which he traces the upward 

\ steps of some 

" ' Divinely gifted man. 
Whose life in low estate began. 
And on a simple village green : 

WTio breaks his birth's invidious bar, 
And grasps the skirts of happy chance, 
And breasts the blows of circumstance, 
And grapples with his evil star : 

'Who makes by force his merit known, 
And lives to clutch the golden keys 
To mold a mighty State's decrees. 
And shape the whLsper of the throne : 

Ajid moving up from high to higher, 
Becomes on Fortune's crowning slope. 
The pillar of a people's hope. 
The center of a world's desire." 

" Such a life and character will be treasured forever ah the sacred pos- 
session of the American people and of mankind. In the great drama of 
the -rebellion, there were two acts. The first was the war, with its 
battles and sieges, victories and defeats, its sufferings and tears. That 
act was closing one year ago to-night, and just as the curtain was lifting 
on the second and final act, the restoration of peace and liberty, — -just 
as the curtain was rising upon new events and new characters, — the evil 
spirit of the rebellion, in the fury of despair, nerved and directed the 
_hand of the assassin to strike down the chief character in both. 



IN THE ASCE2sDANT.— A PROPHETIC ADDRESS. 



197 < 



"It was no one man who killed Abraham Lincoln; it was tlic em- 
bodied spirit of treason and slavery, inspired with fearful and despairing 
hate, that struck him down in the moment of the nation's supremest joy. 

"Ah, sirs, there are times in the history of men and nations when 
they stand so near the veil that separates mortals from immortiils, time 
from eternity, and men from their God, that they can almost hear the 
beatings and feel the pulsations of the heart of the Infinite ! Through 
such a time has this nation passed. When two hundred and fifty thou- 
sand brave spirits passed from the field of honor through that thin veil 
to the presence of God, and when at last its parting folds admitted the 
martyr President to the company of the dead heroes of the Republic, 
the nation stood so near the veil that the whispers of God were heard 
by the children of men. 

"Awe-stricken by His voice, the American jDeople knelt in tearful 
reverence and made a solemn covenant with Him and witli each other 
that this nation should be saved from its enemies, that all its glories 
should be restored, and on the ruins of treason and slavery the temples 
of freedom and justice should be built, and should survive forever. It 
remains for us, consecrated by that great event, and under a covenant 
with God, to keep that faith, to go forward in the great work until it 
shall be completed. 

" Following the lead of that great man, and obeying the high behests 
of God, let us remember that — 

" ' He has sounded forth a trum{iet that shall never call retreat ; 
He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment-seat. 
Be swift, my soul, to answer him, be jubilant at my feet; 
For God is marching on.' 

" I move, sir, that this House do now adjourn." 

The motion being agreed to, the House was declared adjourned. 

It is now necessary to hasten on to the Thirty-Ninth Congress, 
wherein General Garfield, no longer under the disadvantages of a 
new member, continued to develoj) rapidly as an able worker. 

General Garfield was a thorough-going temperance man. On 
returning to his house in Paincsville, Ohio, in the summer of lS6o, 
he found the good people of that place in trouble on account of a 
brewery which had been established in their midst. All eflbrt;? 



>' 198 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

to have it removed had been unavailing. Public meetings were 
held. Garfield attended one of these, and while there announced 
that he would that day remove the brewery. 

He just went over to the brewer and bought him out for $10,000. 
The liquor on hand, and such brewing machinery as could not 
be used for any thing else, he destroyed. When autumn came 
he used his new establishment as a cider-mill. The cider was kept 
till it became good vinegar, and then sold. The General thus did 
a good thing for the public, and, it is said, made money out of the 
investment, until, after several years, he sold the building. 

When Congress met in December, 1865, it had to face a great 
task. The rebellion had been put down, but at great cost; and 
they had an enormous debt to provide for. Four years of war had 
disorganized every thing, and great questions of finance, involving 
tariffs, and taxation, and a thousand vexed themes of public policy, 
hung with leaden weight over the heads of our national legislators. 

Garfield was one of the few men who were both able and will- 
ing to face the music and bury themselves in the bewildering world 
of figures which loomed in the dusky foreground of coming events. 
The interest alone on our liabilities amounted to $150,000,000. 

When Speaker Colfax made up his committees, he asked Gar- 
field what he would like. Garfield replied that he would like t© 
have a place which called for the study of finance. Justin S. 
Morrill, Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, also 
asked for him. 

He was, accordingly, put upon that committee, and immediately 
began to study the subjects which were connected with its pros- 
pective work. 

Conceiving that our financial condition was in some respects 
parallel to that of England at the close of the Napoleonic wars, he 
carefully investigated the conditions, policy, and progress of that 
Government from the time of Waterloo until the resumption of spe- 
cie payments. The most remarkable periods of our own financial 
history were also studied, especially that wherein the great Alex- 
ander Hamilton appears the master mind. 

These pursuits, and a wide-reaching knowledge of the existing 



IN THE ASCENDANT.— AS A LAWYER. 199 < 

conditions in our own country, were the foundations on which 
Garfield built the structure of a set of opinions which were then 
received as good, and which still withstand the test of time. 

Garfield was a splendid lawyer. It is only because his course 
was pushed aside into the great lines of war and of politics that 
his history is not largely the story of great triumphs at the 
bar. When he was examined for admission to the bar of Ohio, 
the lawyers who examined him pronounced his legal knowledge 
phenomenal for a man to have acquired in the short time he had 
been reading. 

But he never practiced in any court until 1866. In this place 
there can be mentioned only his first case, in which he argued be- 
fore the United States Supreme Court. Afterwards he had about 
thirty cases in that court, and often appeared in State coui'ts. 
At one time Judge Jeremiah S. Black, a lawyer of National rep- 
utation, ofiercd him a partnership. Financially it would have 
been a good thing for Garfield, but fortunately for his constitu- 
ents and for the country, he refused. Yet, in the language of 
Stanley Matthews, now of the U. S. Supreme Court, ]SIr. Garfield 
actually ranked "as one of the very best la^vyers at the bar of 
the whole country." 

In 1864, L. P. Milligan, W. A. Bowles, and Stephen Horsey, 
three citizens of Indiana, were arrested in that State on charges 
of treason. There was no doubt that they were guilty of the 
crime. But, unfortunately, they were not tried according to law. 
No government can long hold such absolute powers as were given 
to our government during the rebellion, without developing in 
some degree a carelessness of the forms of law which is fatal 
to liberty. Indiana was not the scene of war. Her courts, and 
the United States courts there were open for the prosecution of 
criminals. Yet these men were arrested by the military dci)art- 
mcnt, tried by a military commission, and condemned to be hanged. 
Lincoln commuted their sentence to imprisonment for life, and 
they were sent to the State penitentiary. At this juncture a pe- 
tition was presented to the U. S. Circuit Court fi)r a writ of 
habeas corpus, to test the legality of these arbitrary proceedings. 



)C 200 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

The judges of that court not agreeing, the points on which they 
disagreed were certified up to the Supreme Court. These points 



were ; 



*'l. On the facts stated in said petition and exhibits, ought a writ of 
habeas corpiis to be issued according to the prayer of said petition ? 2. 
On the facts stated in said petition and exhibits, ought the petitioners to 
be discharged from custody, as in said petition prayed ? 3. On the facts 
stated in said petition and exhibits, had the military commission men- 
tioned therein jurisdiction legally to try and sentence said petitioners in 
manner and form as in said petition and exhibits is stated?" 

This was the case. On March 6, 1866, it was to be argued. 
The eminent counsel engaged therein were : Hons. Joseph E. Mc- 
Donald, Jcre. S. Black, James A. Garfield, and David D. Field, 
for petitioners; Hons. Benjamin F. Butler, James Speed, and 
Heniy Stanbers', for the Government, 

Garfield had been invited to appear in this case by Mr. Black, 
who had observed that, although a patriotic friend of the Admin- 
istration, Garfield had often sternly opposed its tendency to break 
all restraints of law in the exercise of its powers. So he expected, — 
and found it true, — that Garfield's judgment would be with his 
side of the Tklilligan case. Of course that was the unpopular side. 
For Mr. Garfield to defend Milligan and his fellow-traitors would 
perhaps again endanger his reelection ; but he was not the man to 
hesitate when he saw himself in the right. 

One of Garfield's Democratic co-counsel in this case has called 
this act the greatest and bravest of Garfield's life. Like old John 
Adams, defending British soldiers for the Boston massacre, storms 
of obloquy and the sunshine of favor he alike disregarded for the 

sake of principle. 

After two days and nights of preparation, ISIr. Garfield had de- 
cided upon the points of his argument. Needless to say, it was a 
complete and unanswerable presentation of those great English 
and American constitutional principles which secure the free peo- 
ple of those countries from star chambers and military despotisms. 
It showed forth clearly the limits of military power, and demon- 



IN THE ASCENDANT.— SPEECH ON HABEAS CORPUS. 201 

strated the utter want of jurisdiction of a military court over civil- 
ian citizens. 

"When Garfield finished, he had established every essential point 
of his case beyond a peradventure. His speech closed with these 
eloquent words, in appeal to the court: 

" Your decision will mark an era in American history. The just and 
final settlement of this great question will take a high place among the 
great achievements which have immortalized this decade. It Avill estab- 
lish forever this truth, of inestimable value to us and to mankind, that 
a Republic can wield the vast enginery of war without breaking down the 
safeguards of liberty; cau suppress insurrection and put down rebellion, 
however formidable, without destroying the bulwarks of law ; can, by 
the might of its armed millions, preserve and defend both nationality 
and liberty. Victories on the field Avere of priceless value, for they 
plucked the Hfe of the Republic out of the hands of its enemies; but 

' Peace hath her victories 
No less renoivned than war;' 

and if the protection of law shall, by your decision, be extended over 
every acre of our peaceful territory, you will have rendered the great 
decision of the century. 

" When Pericles had made Greece immortal in arts and arms, in 
liberty and law, he invoked the genius of Phidias to devise a monument 
which should symbolize the beauty and glory of Athens. That artist 
selected for his theme the tutelar divinity of Athens, the Jove-born God- 
dess, protectress of arts and arms, of industry and law, who typified the 
Greek conception of composed, majestic, unrelenting force. He erected 
on the heights of the Acropolis a colossal statue of Minerva, armed with 
spear and helmet, which towered in awful majesty above the surrounding 
temples of the gods. Sailors on fiir-off* ships beheld the crest and spear 
of the Goddess, and bowed with reverent awe. To every Greek she was 
the symbol of power and glory. But the Acropolis, with its temples and 
statues, is now a heap of ruins. The visible gods have vanislied in the 
clearer light of modern civilization. We can not restore tlie decayed ' 
emblems of ancient Greece, but it is in your power, O Judge, to erect 
in this citadel of our liberties a monument more lasting than brass ; in- 
visible, indeed, to the eye of flesh, but visible to the eye of the spirit 



?7 

)l 202 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



as the awful form and figure of Justice crowning and adorning the Re- 
public; rising above the storms of political strife, above the din of 
battle, above the earthquake shock of rebellion; seen from afar and 
hailed as protector by the oppressed of all nations ; dispensing equal 
blessings, and covering with the protecting shield of law the weakest, the 
humblest, the meanest, and, until declared by solemn law unworthy of 
protection, the guiltiest of its citizens." 

Other and very able arguments were made on both sides of the 
case ; but the law was sustained and the prisoners set free. 

For this act Garfield was denounced by many newspapers and 
many individuals in his own State and elsewdiere. But, as usual, 
he weathered it all, and was reelected to Congress in the fall ; for 
the Reserve people had come to the point of believing in Garfield, 
though he did not follow their opinions. In from one to three 
years afterwards they generally discovered that he had been right 
from the start. 

On February 1, 1866, Garfield made that masterly address on the 
Freedmen's Bureau, in which he so clearly set forth his views on 
the nature of the Union, and the States of which it is composed. 
This speech will be more fully mentioned in another place.* On 
March 16, 1866, he made a remarkably able speech on "The Cur- 
rency and Specie Payments," farther reference to which must, for 
the present, be deferred. f 

A man of Mr. Garfield's intellect and scholarly acquirements, 
could not fail to be interested in the cause of education, always 
and every-where. He was himself a splendid result of the free- 
school system of Ohio, and had been an enthusiastic teacher. 
What, then, more natural than that as a public man he should try 
to interest Congress in the condition of American schools ? 

At the request of the American Association of School Superin- 
tendents, Mr. Garfield, in February, 1866, prepared a bill for the 
establishment of a National Bureau of Education. The principal 
object of this bureau was to collect statistics and other facts, and 
so to arrange and to publish them as to enlighten the j^eople as to 
our progress in the means of education. The bill was opposed on 



IN THE ASCENDANT.— A BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 203 X 

account of the expense, as it called for an appropriation of fifteen 
thousand dollars ! 

Speaking on this bill, June 8, 1866, Mr. Garfield called atten- 
tion to the subject of national expenditures for extra govern- 
mental purposes. We had expended millions on a Coast Survey 
Bureau, on an Astronomical Observatory, on a Light-House Board, 
on Exploring Expeditions, on the Pacific Railroad Survey, on 
Agriculture, on the Patent Office, — why not a few dollars on Ed- 
ucation? "As man is greater than the soil, as the immortal spirit 
is nobler than the clod it animates, so is the object of this bill of 
more importance than any mere pecuniary interest." 

The National Bureau of Education was established, and the re- 
sults of its work have fully vindicated the opinions of its founders. 

Garfield's idea of what should be tauQ:ht in our schools and col- 
leges was as broad and deep as the domain of knowledge; but, 
withal, very practical. That he loved the classics, his own study 
of them demonstrates ; but he saw that something better adapted 
to the scientific and practical character of our country was needed. 
In an address at Hiram, on June 14, 1867, he gave emphatic ex- 
pression to this idea. 

"A finished education is supposed to consist mainly of literary culture. 
The story of the forges of the Cyclops, where the thunderbolts of Jove 
were fashioned, is supposed to adorn elegant scholarship more gracefully 
that those sturdy truths ■which are preaching to this generation in the 
wonders of the mine, in the fire of the furnace, in the clang of the iron- 
mills, and the other innumerable industries, which, more than all other 
human agencies, have made our civilization what it is, and are destined 
to achieve Avonders yet undreamed of. This generation is beginning to 
understand that education should not be forever divorced from industry'; 
that the highest results can be reached only when science guides the 
hand of labor. ^yith what eagerness and alacrity is industry seizing 
every truth of science and putting it in harness ! " 

Moreover, Mr. Garfield believed strongly in a liberal political 
education for the youth of the land. On this point, in the address 
above mentioned, he said : 



91 



< 204 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

"It is well to know the history of these magnificent nations, whose 
origin is lost in fahle, and whose epitaphs were written a thousand years 
ago ; but, if we can not know both, it is far better to study the history 
of our own nation, whose origin we can trace to the freest and noblest 
aspirations of the hiiman heart — a nation that was formed from the 
hardiest, purest, and most enduring elements of European civilization; 
a nation that by its faith and courage has dared and accomplished more 
for the human race in a single century than Europe accomplished in the 
first thousand years of the Christian era. The Kew England township 
was the type after which our Federal Government was modeled ; yet it 
would be rare to find a college student who can make a comprehensive 
and intelligible statement of the municipal organization of the township 
in which he was born, and tell you by what oflScers its legislative, judi- 
cial, and executive functions are administered. One half of the time 
which is now almost wholly wasted in district schools on English gram- 
mar, attempted at too early an age, would be sufficient to teach our 
children to love the Republic, and to become its loyal and life-long sup- 
porters. After the bloody baptism from which the Nation has risen to 
a higher and nobler life, if this shameful defect in our system of educa- 
tion be not speedily remedied, we shall deserve the infinite contempt of 
future generations. I insist that it should be made an indispensable con- 
dition of graduation in every American college, that the student must un- 
derstand the history of this continent since its discovery by Europeans, 
the origin and history of the United States, its constitution of govern- 
ment, the struggles through which it has passed, and the rights and 
duties of citizens who are to determine its destiny and share its glory. 

" Having thus gained the knowledge which is necessary to life, health, 
industry, and citizenship, the student is prepared to enter a wider and 
grander field of thought. If he desires that large and liberal culture 
which will call into activity all his powers, and make the most of the 
material God has given him, he must study deeply and earnestly the in- 
tellectual, the moral, the religious, and the aesthetic nature of man ; his 
relations to nature, to civilization past and present; and, above all, his 
relations to God. These should occupy, nearly, if not fully, half the time 
of his college course. In connection with the philosophy of the mind, he 
should study logic, the pure mathematics, and the general laws of thought. 
In connection with moral philosophy, he should study political and social 
ethics — a science so little known either in colleges or Congresses. Promi- 



IN THE ASCENDANT.-THE FORTIETH CONGRESS. 205 X 

nent among all the rest, should be his study of the wonderful history of 
tlie luiraau race, in its slow and toilsome march across the centuries — now 
buried in ignorance, superstition, and crime ; now rising to the sublimity 
of heroism and catching a glimpse of a better destiny; now turning re- 
morselessly away from, and leaving to perish, empires and civilizations 
in which it had invested its faith and coui'age and boundless energy for a 
thousand years, and, plunging into the forests of Germany, Gaul, and 
Britain, to build for itself new empires better fitted for its new aspirations; 
and, at last, crossing three thousand miles of unknown sea, and building 
in the wilderness of a new hemisphere its latest and proudest monuments." 

"When the Fortieth Congress met, in December of 1867, Mr. 
Garfield was, contrary to his wishes, taken off the Committee 
on Ways and Means and made Chairman of the Committee on 
Military Affairs. In the line of this work he pursued some very 
important investigations of both military and political character. 

Among his most important speeches, in this connection, were 
that on the " ]\Iilitary Control of the Rebel States," made in Feb- 
ruary, 1867 (during the Thirty-Ninth Congress), and that deliv- 
ered January 17, 1868, on the then all-absorbing theme, "Recon- 
struction." 

In the conflict between President Johnson and the majority in 
Congress, about the government of the late rebel States, Mr. Gar- 
field was, of course, sternly opposed to that outrageous policy of 
the President, whose main' object seemed to be the undoing of all 
the beneficial results of the war. 

When the articles of impeachment against Johnson were passed, 
Garfield was not in Washington; but on his return, February 29, 
1868, he took occasion to say that if he had been present he should 
have voted for them. He had formerly opposed such action be- 
cause he thought it would be unsuccessful. Johnson's later ac- 
tions, how'ever, especially his arbitrary dismissal of Secretary 
Stanton, M'cre such clear violations of the Constitution that he 
supposed the President's guilt could be judicially cstablislied, 
and therefore he favored the attempt. 

On the 15th of May of this same year, Mr. Garfield delivered 
another address on the currency. His financial views were still 



i 206 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELP. 

in advance of his party, and the unsound views advanced by various 
politicians gave opportunity for many a well-directed shot from his 
well-stored armory of facts, figures, and principles. His speeches 
on this topic alone would fill a large volume. 

In 1868 occurred one of the many attempts made by politicians 
to reduce the public debt by extorting money from the Nation's 
creditors. On July 15, 1868, Mr. Garfield discussed, at consider- 
able length and with all his usual clearness and ability, one of 
these measures, which, in this case, was a bill for the taxation of 
bonds. He was too honest a man, and, at the same time, too 
sound a financier, to be blind to the wrong as Avell as the im- 
politic character of such a law. Two paragraphs will suffice to 
exhibit these two points: 

"Nobody expects that we can pay as fast as the debt matures, but we 
shall be compelled to go into the market and negotiate new loans. Let 
this system of taxation be pursued ; let another Congress put the tax at 
twenty per cent,, another at forty per cent. , and another at fifty per cent., 
or one hundred per cent. ; let the principle once be adopted — the rate is 
only a question of discretion — and where will you be able to negotiate a 
loan except at the most ruinous sacrifice ? Let such legislation prevail as 
the gentleman urges, and can we look any man in the face and ask him 
to loan us money? If Ave do not keep faith to-day, how can we expect 
to be trusted hereafter? 

" There was a declaration made by an old English gentleman in the 
days of Charles II. which does honor to human nature. He said he was 
willing at any time to give his life for the good of his country; but he 
would not do a mean thing to save his country from ruin. So, sir, ought 
a citizen to feel in regard to our financial affairs. The people of the 
United States can afl!ord to make any sacrifice f )r their country, and the 
history of the last war has proved their willingness; but the humblest 
citizen can not afford to do a mean or dishonorable thing to save even this 
glorious Republic." 

It was in 1867 that Garfield made his only trip to Europe. 
When the summer of that year came, the hard year's work", just fin- 
ished, had made considerable inroad on his health, and he thought 
a sea voyage would bring back his strength. On July 13, Mr. and 



IN THE ASCENDANT.— VISITS EUKOPE. 207 ^ 

Mrs. Garfield sailed from Xew York in the " City of Loudon," 
which carried them across the Atlantic in thirteen days. 

Remembering the ambitions of his boyhood to become a sailor, 
Garfield enjoyed his voyage as few men do who cross the sea. 
They reached Liverpool on the 26th, and as they steamed up the 
Mersey, General Garfield significantly remarked, looking down 
into its muddy waters, 

" The quality of Mersey is not strained." 

From Liverpool they went to London, stopping at two or three 
interesting places by the way. At London he visited both Houses 
of Parliament, heard debates on the great reform bill M-hich passed 
at that time; saw Gladstone, Disraeli, Bright, and other great 
Englishmen, and afler a week of sight-seeing and studying here, 
visited other parts of England, and then went to Scotland. Mr. 
Blaine and Mr. Morrill, were with them in Scotland. There the 
General visited the home of Burns and re-read " Tam O'Shanter." 

Leaving Scotland at Leith, they crossed the North Sea to Rot- 
terdam, went to Brussels and Cologne, and thence up the Rhine to 
Mayence. 

Thence by various stages, reveling in old world glories, he 
reached Italy — Florence and Rome. Here a year of life was 
crowded into a week, while Garfield lived amid the wrecks of 
antiquity and the decayed remnants of that dead empire whose 
splendid history can not be forgotten till " the last syllable of re- 
corded time." 

On October first they proceeded, by a circuitous route, to make 
their way to Paris, where they met several American friends, 
among them the artist. Miss Ransom. Afler a short stay there, 
and a few excursions to other places, they finally started for home, 
and by November 6th they were once more standing on American 
soil. 

General Garfield's health was by this means thoroughly restored, 
and he had realized in some degree one of the sincerest wishes of 
his life, — a more familiar acquaintance with some places across the 
sea than books could give. 



^ 208 LTFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

On ^Isij 30, 1868, occurred the first general observance of that 
beautiful national custom, the annual decoration of the soldiers' 
graves. On that day, the President and his Cabinet, with a large 
number of Congressmen and other distinguished persons, and about 
fifteen thousand people, met on Arlington Heights to pay their re- 
spects to the Nation's dead, and listen to an address. The orator 
of the day was Garfield. 

No more touching and sincere expression of patriotic sentiments 
was ever uttered than he spoke there that day. Indeed, his rev- 
erence for the time and place was deeper than his words could tell. 
To this he referred in the beginning, saying: 

" If silence is ever golden, it must be here, beside the graves of fifteen 
thousand men, whose fives were more significant than speech, and whose 
death was a poem the music of which can never be sung. With words 
we make promises, plight faith, praise virtue. Promises may not be 
kept; pfighted fliith may be broken; and vaunted virtue may be only 
the cunning mask of vice. We do not know one promise these men 
made, one pledge they gave, one word they spoke; but we do know they 
summed up and perfected, by one supreme act, the highest virtues of 
men and citizens. For love of country they accepted death; and thus 
resolved all doubts, and made immortal their patriotism and their virtue. 

" For the noblest man that lives tliere still remains a conflict. He 
must still withstand the assaults of time and fortune ; must still be as- 
sailed with temptations before which lofty natures have fallen. But with 
these, the conflict ended, the victory was won, when death stamped on 
them the great seal of heroic character, and closed a record which years 
can never blot." 

This memorable address closed thus: 

"And now, consider this silent assembly of the dead. What does it 
represent? Nay, rather, what does it not represent? It is an epitome 
of the war. Here are sheaves reaped, in the harvest of death, from 
every battle-field of Virginia. If each grave had a voice to tell us what 
its silent tenant last saw and heard on earth, we might stand, with un- 
covered heads, and hear the whole story of the war. We should hear 
that one perished when the first great drops of the crimson shower began 
to fall, when the darkness of that first disaster at Manassas fell like an 



IN THE ASCENDANT.— CROWNING THE VICTORS. 209 -< 

eclipse on the Nation; that another died uf disease \vhile Avearily waiting 
for winter to end; that this one fell on the field, in sight of the spires of 
Richmond, little dreaniiug that the flag must be carried through three 
more years of blood before it should be planted in that citadel of treason; 
and that one fell when the tide of war had swept us hack, till the roar 
of rebel guns shook the dome of yonder Capitol, and re-echoed in the cham- 
bers of the Executive Mansion. We should hear mingled voices from the 
Rappahannock, the Rapidan, the Chickahominy, and the James ; solemn 
voices from the Wilderness, and triumphant shouts from the Shenandoah, 
from Petersburgh, and the Five Forks, mingled with the wild acclaim 
of victory and the sweet chorus of returning peace. The voices of these 
dead will forever fill the land, like holy benedictions. 

" What other spot so fitting for their last resting-place as this, under 
the shadow of the capitol saved by their valor? Here, where the grim 
edge of battle joined ; here, where all the hope and fear and agony of 
their country centered ; here let them rest, asleep on the Nation's heart, 
entombed in the Nation's love! 

" The view from this spot bears some resemblance to that which greets 
the eye at Rome. In sight of the Capitoline Hill, up and across the 
Tiber, and overlooking the city, is a hill, not rugged or lofty, but known 
as the Vatican INIount. At the beginning of the Christian Era, an im- 
perial circus stood on its summit. There, gladiator slaves died for the 
sport of Rome, and wild beasts fought with wilder men. In that arena, 
a Galilean fisherman gave up his life, a sacrifice for bis faith. No human 
life was ever so nobly avenged. On that spot was reared the proudest 
Christian temple ever built by human hands. For its adornment, the 
rich ofierings of every clime and kingdom had been contributed. And 
now, after eighteen centuries, the hearts of two hundred million })eople 
turn toward it with reverence when they worship God. As the traveler 
descends the Apennines, he sees the dome of St. Peter rising above the 
desolate Campagna and the dead city, long before the Seven Hills and 
ruined palaces appear to his view. The fiime of the dead fisherman has 
outlived the glory of the Eternal City. A noble life, crowned with he- 
roic death, rises above and outlives the pride and pomp and glory of the 
mightiest empire of the earth. 

" Seen from the western slope of our Capitol, in direction, distance, and 
appearance, this spot is not unlike the Vatican iMount, though the river 
that flows at our feet is larger than a hundred Tibers. Seven years ago 
14 






/ 210 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

this was the home of one who lifted his sword against the life of his 
country, and who became the great imperator of the rebellion. The soil 
beneath our feet was watered by the tears of slaves, in whose hearts the 
sight of yonder proud Capitol awakened no pride, and inspired no hope. 
The face of the goddess that crowns it was turned toward the sea, and not 
toward them. But, thanks be to God, this arena of rebellion and slav- 
ery is a scene of violence and crime no longer ! This will be forever the 
sacred mountain of our capital. Here is our temple ; its pavement is 
the sepulcher of heroic hearts ; its dome, the bending heaven ; its altar 
candles, the watching stars. 

" Hither our children's children shall come to pay their tribute of grate- 
ful homage. For this are we met to-day. By the happy suggestion of 
a great society, assemblies like this are gathering at this hour in every 
State in the Union. Thousands of soldiers are to-day turning aside in 
the march of life to visit the silent encampments of dead comrades who 
once fought by their sides. 

" From many thousand homes, whose light was put out when a soldier 
fell, there go forth to-day, to join these solemn processions, loving kindred 
and friends, from whose hearts the shadow of grief will never be lifted 
till the light of the eternal world dawns upon them. 

" And here are children, little children, to whom the war left no father 
but the Father above. By the most sacred right, theirs is the chief 
place to-day. They come with garlands to crown their victor fathers. I 
will delay the celebration no longer." 



LEADER A^^D STATESMAN.— NO GEEENBACKEEY. 211 ^ 



CHAPTER A^I. 

LEADER AND STATESMAN. 

AS a politician, General Garfield was peculiar. In fact, he was 
scarcely a politician at all. The title of this chapter tells 
what he was. While he was in Europe the inflation cry was raised. 
Greenbacks were good. The Government printing-presses were 
idle. Why not put the presses at work making more greenbacks ? 
There were plenty of worthy, industi^ous men, who were poor. 
Why not have money enough to place every one in comfortable 
circumstances? W^hat a capital idea! Why had no one thought 
of it before? The West, and particularly Ohio, laughed aloud 
with pleasure at the new fountain of wealth which had been 
right under the people's noses all the time, and no one ever sus- 
pected it. In order to make things even all around, it was the 
thing to do to make the bondholders take greenbacks instead of 
gold for their bonds. If they objected, no matter ; they could 
stand it. Ohio Republicans took up this battle cry. General 
Garfield's constituents were for inflation with all their hearts. As 
for himself he had, in March, 1866, declared for hard money, and 
for the payment of the bonds in gold. Congressmen have to go 
to the country every two years, so that tlie popular sentiment may 
be constantly represented in the Low^cr House of Congress, Gar- 
field had been reelected three times. To secure another election, 
most men would have found their political opinions, about elec- 
tion time, gradually coming around to those of the people. Read 
the following extract from a letter by General Garfield to his con- 
fidential friend, Hinsdale, written March 8, 1868: 

"Tlie State convention at Columbus has committed itself to some financial 
doctrines that, if I xinderstand them, I can not and will not indorse. If my 



/^7 

A 212 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

constituents approve them, they can not ajjprove me. Before many weeks my 
immediate political future will be decided. I care less about the result 
than I have ever cared before." 

How is that for independence? 

But the private letter was only the preface to an expression of 
the same thing in public. When General Garfield came home his 
friends found that he was immovable on the financial question. A 
short time before the nominating convention he was about to return 
to Washington. Some friends at Jefferson arranged to give him a 
reception on the eve of his departure. There was to be some 
speech-making. His friends had urged him to let the financial 
question alone. The w'elcoming address contained some broad hints. 
The speaker hinted at the greenback platform, and delicately inti- 
mated that General Garfield's return ^vas conditioned upon his 
indorsement of the platform. Then the thundcrer let fly. Gar- 
field took up the question of finance, and, in the boldest terms, de- 
nounced the party platform as dishonest and despicable. He de- 
clared that if a life-time of office were offered him, with the 
understanding that he was to support the platform, he would refuse 
it at once. Then he took himself off to Washington. When the 
time for the convention came he was renominated, and a short time 
later elected. 

It is impossible to even sketch the varied activities of the man 
from this time on, in Congress. His voluminous reports, his compre- 
hensive debates on every leading subject, his immense and varied 
committee work, comprise a vast field, the very outline of which 
would surpass the limits of this work. No subject of national 
importance escaped his attention. Reconstruction, pensions, nav- 
igation, tariff, internal improvements, the census, education, the 
Indian question, corporations, the currency, national banks, pub- 
lic expenditures, civil service reform, railways, civil rights, po- 
lygamy, the Chinese — these are only a few of the great subjects 
which he mastered. His speeches are incomparable for their pro- 
found learning, their exhaustive research, their glowdng rhetoric. 
They might serve as text-books upon the great governmental 
problems of the age. In looking over the record of the proceed- 



t 



/^ 



LEADEE AND STATEvSMAN.— THE NINTH CENSUS. 213 

ings in Congress at this period, one can but be impressed with 
the marked superiority of his efforts over those of the large ma- 
jority of his compeers. However worthy the utterances of these 
latter may be viewed alone, they are dwarfed by the forced com- 
parison with the productions of his majestic mind. These speeches 
mark the man as a carefully trained intellectual giant, perfectly 
at home and a terror in the field of debate. They are of inesti- 
mable value now, as giving his intellectual biography. 

On December 14, 1868, he introduced a bill " To strengthen 
the public credit." This subsequently became a part of the great 
bill making our bonds payable in gold. Around this fortification 
of the public credit, for ten years, political warfare raged the 
fiercest, but the rampart was never taken; and, in 1879, when 
resumption was accomplished, the law still remained on the statute 
book. Every attempt to repeal it was fought by Garfield on the 
principles of political science, and his name must be placed with 
those of Grant and Sherman on this question. 

February 26, 1869, General Garfield, as Chairman of the Mili- 
tary Committee, made the monster report upon the reorganization 
of the army. It contains one hundred and thirty-seven printed 
pages. The stupendous problem of readjusting the armies of the 
republic to a peace footing, had occupied Garfield for years. His 
report was the result of examinations of all the leading army 
officers. It contained the history of each department of the army. 
It illuuiinated all the dark corners, the secret channels, the hid- 
den chambers of corruption which had been constructed in the 
military policy of the country, and was the product of enormous 
labor. 

In the spring of 1869 General Garfield introduced a resolution 
for the appointment of a committee to examine into the necessities 
for legislation upon the subject of the ninth census, to be taken the 
following year. He was appointed chairman. His speeches on 
the great subject of statistics are most characteristic. They arc 
wholly out of the rut of Congressional speeches. They show 
Garfield in the light of a political scientist. Nothing could more 
strikingly prove the enormous reach of his mind. He showed him- 



.i 

y. 214 LIFE OF JAMKS A. GARFIELD. 

self abreast of the scientific thought of the age. Yohime after 
volume of the Congressional Globe will be searched in vain to find 
speeches from any other man which even approximate these studies 
in the region of social science. Nowhere in or out of Congress 
can be found so succinct and admirable a statement of the impor- 
tance of statistics. Here is an extract from his first speech, made 
April 6, 1869 : 

• " This is the age of statistics, Mr. Speaker. The word ' statistics' it- 
self did not exist until 1749, whence we date the beginning of a new 
science on which modern legislation must be based, in order to be per- 
manent. The treatise of Achenwall, the German 2)hilosopher who origin- 
ated the word, laid the foundation of many of the greatest reforms in 
modern legislation. Statistics are state facts, facts for the considera- 
tion of statesmen, such as they may not neglect with safety. It has been 
truly said that ' statistics are history in repose ; history is statistics in mo- 
tion.' If we neglect tlie one, we shall deserve to be neglected by the other. 
The le'^islator without statistics is like the mariner at sea without the com- 
pass. Nothing can safely be committed to his guidance. A question of 
fearfid importance, the -well-being of this Republic, has agitated this 
House for many weeks. It is this: Are our rich men growing richer, 
and our poor growing poorer? And how can this most vital question 
be settled, except by the most careful and honest examination of the 
facts? Who can doubt that the next census will reveal to us more im- 
portant truths concerning the situation of our people than any census ever 
taken by any nation? By what standard could we measure the value 
of a complete, perfect record of tlie condition of the people of this coun- 
try, and such facts as should exhibit their burdens and their strengtli ? 
Who doubts that it Avould be a document of inestimable value to the 
legislator and the nation? How to achieve it, how to accomplish it, is 
the great question. 

"We are near the end of a decade that has been full of earthquakes, 
and amid the tumult we have lost our reckoning. We do not yet com- 
prehend the stupendous changes through which we have passed, nor can 
we until the whole field is resurveyed. If a thousand volcanoes had been 
bursting beneath the ocean, the mariner would need new charts before 
he could safely sail the seas again. AVe are soon to set out on our next 
decade with a thousand new elements thrown in upon us by the war. 



LEADER AND STATESMAN.— SCIENCE OF STATISTICS. 215 

The way is trackless. Who shall pilot us? The war repealed a part of 
our venerable census law. One schedule was devoted to slaves. Thank 
God ! it is useless now. Old things have passed away, and a multitude 
of new things are to be here recorded; and not only the things to be 
taken, but the manner of taking them, requires a thorough remodeling 
at our hands. If this Congress does not worthily meet the demands of 
this great occasion, every member must bear no small share of the odium 
that justly attaches to men who fail to discharge duties of momentous 
importance, which once neglected can never be performed." 

Ou December 16, 1867, General Garfield made a second speecli 
on the subject, so elaborate and remarkable, so unlike any thing to 
be found clscAvhere in all the annals of the American Congress, 
that we yield large space to it. The latter part of the speech 
relates to the defects of the old law, and the advantages of the 
proposed new one: 

' ' The modern census is so closely related to the science of statistics 
that no general discussion of it is possible Avithout considering the prin- 
ciples on which statistical science rests and the objects which it proposes 
to reach. 

"The science of statistics is of recent date, and, like many of its sister 
sciences, owes its origin to the best and freest impulses of modern civili- 
zation. The enumerations of inhabitants and the appraisements of prop- 
erty made by some of the nations of antiquity were practical means 
employed sometimes to distribute political power, but more frequently to 
adjust the burdens of war, but no attempt was made among them to 
classify the facts obtained so as to make them the basis of scientific in- 
duction. The thought of studying these facts to ascertain the wants of 
society had not then dawned upon the human mind, and, of course, there 
was not a science of statistics in this modern sense. 

"It is never easy to fix the precise date of the birth of any science, 
but we may safely say that statistics did not enter its scientific phase 
before 1749, wheu it received from Professor Achenwall, of Gcittingen, 
not only its name, but the first comprehensive statement of its princi- 
ples. AVithout pau.-^ing to trace the stages of its growth, some of the 
resulUi of the cultivation of statistics in the spirit and methods of science 
may be stated as germane to this discussion: 

"1. It has developed the truth that society is an organism, whose ele- 



216 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD, 

ments and forces confoi'm to laws as constant and pervasive as those 
which govern the material universe; and that the study of these laws 
will enable man to ameliorate his condition, to emancipate himself 
from the cruel dominion of superstition, and from countless evils which 
w'ere once thought beyond his control, and will make him the master 
rather than the slave of nature. Mankind have been sIoav to believe 
that order reigns in the universe — that the world is a cosmos and not a 
chaos. 

"The assertion of the reign of law has been stubbornly resisted at every 
step. The divinities of heathen superstition still linger in one form or 
another in the faith of the ignorant, and even intelligent men shrink from 
the contemplation of one supreme will acting regularly, not fortuitously, 
through laws beautiful and simple rather than through a fitful and ca- 
pricious system of intervention. 

" Lecky tells us that in the early ages it was believed that the motion 
of the heavenly bodies, as well as atmospheric changes, was afiected by 
angels. In the Talmud, a special angel was assigned to every star and 
every element, and similar notions were general throughout the Middle 
Ages. 

"The scientific spirit has cast out the demons, and presented us with 
nature clothed and in her right mind and living under the reign of law. 
It has given us, for the sorceries of the alchemist, the l^eautiful laws of 
chemistry; for the dreams of the astrologer, the sul)lime tniths of 
astronomy ; for the wild visions of cosmogony, the monumental records 
of geology; for the anarchy of diabolism, the laws of God. But more 
stubborn still has been the resistance against every attempt to assert the 
r^ign of law in the realm of society. In that struggle, statistics has been 
the handmaid of science, and has poured a flood of light upon the dark 
questions of famine and pestilence, ignorance and crime, disease and death. 

"We no longer hope to predict the career and destiny of a human 
being by studying the conjunction of planets that presided at his birth. 
We study rather the laws of life within him, and the elements and forces 
of nature and society around him. We no longer attribute the untimely 
death of infants wholly to the sin of Adam, for we know it is the result 
of bad nursing and ignorance. We are beginning to acknowledge that — 

" ' The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, 
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.' 

Governments are only beginning to recognize these truths. 



LEADEK AND STATESMAN.— INFLUENCE OF STATISTICS. 217 

" la 1853 the Presbytery of Edinburgli petitioned the British ministry 
to appoint a day of national fasting and prayer, in order to stay the 
ravages of chol6ra in Scothxnd. Lord Palmerston, the Home Secretary, 
replied in a letter which a century before no British statesman would 
have dared to write. He told the clergy of Scotland that: 'The plague 
being already upon them, activity was preferable to humiliation; that 
the causes of disease should be removed by improving the abodes of the 
poor, and cleansing them from those sources of contagion which would 
infallibly breed pestilence and be fruitful in death in spite of all the 
prayers and fastings of a united but inactive nation.' Henry Thomas 
Buckle expressed the belief that this letter will be quoted in future ages 
as a striking illustration of the progress of enlightened public opinion. 
But that further progress is possible is seen in the fact that within the 
last three years an English bishop has attributed the rinderpest to the 
Oxford essays and the writings of Colenso. 

"In these remarks I disclaim any reference to the dominion of the 
Creator over his spiritual universe, and the high and sacred duty of all 
his intelligent creatures to reverence and worship him. I speak solely of 
those laws that relate to the physical, intellectual, and social life of man. 

"2. The development of statistics are causing history to be rewa-itten. 
Till recently the historian studied nations in the aggregate, and gave us 
only the story of princes, dynasties, sieges, and battles. Of the jieople 
themselves — the great social body with life, growth, sources, elements, and 
laws of its own — he told us nothing. Now statistical inquiry leads him 
into the hovels, homes, workshops, mines, fields, prisons, hospitals, and 
all places where human nature displays its weakness and its strength. 
In these explorations he discovers the seeds of national growth and de- 
cay, and thus becomes the prophet of his generation. 

"Without the aid of statistics, that most masterly chapter of human 
history, the third of Macaulay's first volume, could never have been 
written. 

" 3. Statistical science is indispensable to modern statesmanship. In 
legislation as in physical science it is beginning to be understood that we 
can control terrestial forces only by obeying their laws. The legislator 
must formulate in his statues not only the national will, but also those 
gi-eat laws of social life revealed by statistics. He must study society 
rather than black-letter learning. He must learn the truth ' that society 
usually prepares the crime, and the criminal is only the instrument that 



218 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

accomplishes it;' that statesmanship consists rather in removing causes 
than in punishing or ev_ading results. 

"Light is itself a great corrective. A thousand -wrongs and abuses 
that grow in the darkness disappear like owls and bats before the light 
of day. For example, who can doubt that before many months the press 
of this country will burn down the whipping-posts of Delaware as effect- 
ually as the mirrors of Archimedes burned the Roman ships in the har- 
bor of Syracuse? 

"I know of no writer who has exhibited the importance of this science 
to statesmanship so fully and so ably as Sir George Cornwall Lewis, in his 
treatise On the Methods of Observation and Reasoning on Politics. 

" After showing that politics is now taking its place among the sciences, 
and as a science its superstructure rests on observed and classified facts, 
he says of the registration of political facts, which consists of history and 
statistics, that ' it may be considered as the entrance and propyltea to 
politics. It furnishes the materials upon which the artificer operates, 
which he hews into shape and builds up into a symmetrical structure.' 

" In a subsequent chapter, he portrays the importance of statistics to 
the practical statesman in this strong and lucid language: 

" ' He can hardly take a single safe step without consulting them. 
Whether he be framing a plan of finance, or considering the operation 
of an existing tax, or following the variations of trade, or studying the 
public health, or examining the effects of a criminal law, his conclusions 
ought to be guided by statistical data.' — Vol. i, p. 134. 

" Napoleon, with that wonderful vision vouchsafed to genius, saw the 
importance of this science when he said : 

" ' Statistics is the budget of things; and without a budget there is no 
public safety.' 

" We may not, perhaps, go as far as Goethe did, and declare that 
'figures govern the world;' but we can fully agree Avith him that 'they 
show how it is governed.' 

"Baron Quetelet, of Belgium, one of the ripest scholars and profound- 
est students of statistical science, concludes his latest chapter of scientific 
results in these words : 

"'One of the principal results of civilization is to reduce more and 
more the limits within which the diflferent elements of society fluctuate. 
The more intelligence increases the more these limits are reduced, and the 
nearer we approach the beautiful and the good. The perfectibility of the 



LEADER AND STATESMAN.— ANALYZES THE CENSUS. 219 

human species results as a necessary consequence of all our researches. 
Physical defects and monstrosities are gradually disappearing ; tlie fre- 
quency and severity of diseases are resisted more successfully by the 
progress of medical science ; the moral qualities of man are jiroving 
themselves not less capable of improvement ; and the more we advance, 
the less we shall have need to fear those great political convulsions and 
wars and their attendant results, which are the scourges of raankuid.' 

"It should be added that the growing importance of political science, 
as well as its recent origin, is exhibited in the fact that nearly every 
modern nation has established within the last half century a bureau of 
general statistics for the uses of statesmanship and science. In the 
thirty states of Europe they are now assiduously cultivating the science. 
Xot one o? their central bureaus was fully organized before the year 
1800. ' 

' ' Tlie chief instrument of American statistics is the census, which should 
accomplish a two-fold object. It should serve the country by making a 
full and accurate exhibit of the elements of national life and strength, 
and it should serve the science of statistics by so exhibiting general 
results that they may be compared with similar data obtained by other 
nations. 

" In the light of its national uses and its relations to social science, 
let us consider the origin and development of the American census. 

"During the colonial period, several enumerations of the inhabitants 
of the Colonies were made by the order of the British Board of Trade ; 
but no general concerted attempt was made to take a census until 
after the opening of the Revolutionary War. As illustrating the practical 
difficulty of census-taking at that time, a passage in a letter, written in 
1715 to the Lords of Trade, by Hunter, the colonial governor of New 
York, may be interesting: 

" ' The superstition of this people is so unsurmountable that I believe 
I shall never be able to obtain a complete list of the number of inhab- 
itants of this province.' — iVe?(; Yorh Colonial MSS., vol. v, p. 4o9. 

"He then suggests a computation, based upon returns of militia and 
of freemen, afterward the women and children, and then the servants 
and slaves. 

" William Burnet, colonial governor of New Jersey, to the Lords of 
Trade, June 26, 1726, after mentioning returns made in 1723, says: 

" ' I would have then ordered the like accounts to be taken in New 



220 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

Jersey, but I was advised it might make the people uneasy, they being 
generally of a New England extraction, and thereby enthusiasts ; and 
that they would take it for a repetition of the same sin that David com- 
mitted in numbering the people, and might bring on the like judgments. 
This notion put me off from it at the time, but since your lordships desire 
it, I will give the orders to the sheriffs, that it may be done as soon as 
may be.' 

" Tliat this sentiment has not wholly disappeared, may be seen from 
the following: At a public meeting held on the evening of November 12, 
1867, in this city, pending the taking of the census of the District of 
Columbia by the Department of Education and the municipal author- 
ities, a speaker, whose name is given in the reported proceedings, said : 

" ' I regard the whole matter as illegal. Taking the census is an im- 
portant matter. In the Bible we are told David ordered Joab to take 
the census when he had no authority to do so, and Joab was punished 
for it.' He thought these parties, the Metropolitan police, should be 
enjoined from asking questions, and he advised those who had not 
returned the blank, not to fill it up or answer a single question. 

" As early as 1775 the Continental Congress resolved that certain of 
the burdens of the war should be distributed among the Colonies, ' accord- 
ing to the number of inhabitants of all ages, including negroes and 
mulattoes, in each colony;' and also recommended to the several colonial 
conventions, councils, or committees of safety, to ascertain the number of 
inhabitants in each colony, and to make returns to Congress as soon as 
possible. Such responses a-s were made to this recommendation, were 
probably of no great value, and are almost wholly lost. 

"The Articles of Confederation, as reported by John Dickinson, in 
July, 1776, provided for a triennial enumeration of the inhabitants of 
the States, such enumeration to be the basis of adjusting the 'charges 
of war and all other expenses that should be incurred for the common 
defense or general welfare.' The eighth of the articles, as they were 
finally adopted, provided that these charges and expenses should be 
defrayed out of a common treasury, to be supplied by the several States 
in ' proportion to the value of land within each State granted to or sur- 
veyed for any person ; and such land and the buildings and improve- 
ments thereon shall be estimated according to such mode as the United 
States, in Congress assembled, shall from time to time direct and appoint' 

"The ninth article gave Congress the authority 'to agree upon the 



LEADER AND STATESMAN.— GROWTH OF THE CENSUS. 221 

V 

numbers of land forces, and to make requisitions from each of its quota 

in proportion to the number of white inhabitants in such State.' These 
articles, unquestionably contemplated a national census, to include a 
valuation of land and an enumeration of population, but they led to no 
substantial results. When the blanks in the revenue repurt of 1783 
Avere filled, the committee reported that they had been compelled to 
estimate the population of all the States except New Hampshire, Rhode 
Island, Connecticut, and Maryland. 

"The next step is to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The 
charter of Government, framed by that body, provided for a national 
census to be taken decennially. Moreau de Jonnes, a distinguished French 
writer on statistics, in his ' Elements de Statistique,' refers to the consti- 
tutional provision in the following elevated language : 

" 'The United States presents in its history a phenomenon which has 
no parallel. It is that of a people who instituted the statistics of their 
country on the very day when they formed their Government, and who 
regulated in the same instrument the census of their citizens, their civil 
and political rights, and the destinies of the country.' 

" De Jonnes considers the American census the more remarkable be- 
cause it was instituted at so early a date by a people very jealous of 
their liberties; and he gives emj^hasis to his statement by referring to 
the heavy penalties imposed by the first law of Congress to carry these 
provisions into effect. 

"It must be confessed, however, that the American founders looked 
only to practical ends. A careful search through the 'jNIadison Papers' 
has failed to show that any member of the Convention considered the 
census in its scientific bearings. But they gave us an instrument by 
which those ends can be reached. 'They builded wiser than they knew.' 

"In pursuance of the requirements of the Constitution, an act pro- 
viding for an enumeration of the inhabitants of the United States was 
passed March 1, 1790. 

" As illustrating the growth of the American census, it is worth ob- 
serving that the report of the first census was an octavo pamphlet of 
fifty-two pages, and that of 1800, a folio of seventy-eight pages. 

"On the 23d of January, 1800, a memorial of the American Pliilo- 
sophical Society, signed by Thomas Jefferson as its President, was laid 
before the Senate. In this remarkable paper, written in tlie spirit and 
interest of science, the memorialists prayed that the siihere of the census 



LEADEE AND STATESMAN.-STATISTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 223 

might be greatly extended ; but it does not appear to liave made any 
impression on the Senate, for no trace of it is found in the annals of 
Congress. 

"The results attained by the first six censuses were meager for the 
purposes of science. That of 1790 embraced population only, its siu'de 
schedule containing six inquiries. That of 1800 had only a population 
schedule with fourteen inquiries. In 1810, an at-tempt was made to 
superadd statistics of manufactures, but the results were of no value. 
In 1820 the statistics of manufactures were again worthless. In 1830 
the attempt to take them was abandoned. In 1840 there were schedules 
of population and manufactures, and some inquiries relating to educa- 
tion and employment. 

"The law of May 23, 1850, under which the seventh and eighth cen- 
suses were taken, marks an important era in the history of American 
statistics. This law owes many of its Avisest provisions and much of the 
success of its execution to Mr. Joseph C. G. Kennedy, under whose in- 
telligent superintendence the chief w^ork of the last census was accom- 
plished. This law marks the transition of the American census from 
the merely practical to the scientific phase. The system thus originated 
needs correction to make it conform to the later results of statistical 
science and to the wants of the American people. Nevertheless, it de- 
serves the high commendations passed upon it by some of the most emi- 
nent statisticians and publicists of the Old World." 

In continuing his speech, General Garfield considered the de- 
fects in the method of taking the census. Among the many im- 
provements suggested are the following: 

"The war has left us so many mutilated men, that a record should 
be made of those who have lost a limb or have been otherwise disabled, 
and the committee have added an inquiry to show the state of public 
health and the prevalence of some of the principal diseases. Dr. Jarvis, 
of IMassachusetts, one of the highest living authorities on vital statistics, 
in a masterly paper presented to the committee, urged the importance 
of measuring as accurately as possible the effective physical strength of 
the people. 

" It is not generally know'n how large a proportion of each nation is 
wholly or partially unfitted by physical disability for self-support. The 
statistics of France show that, in 1851, in a population of less than 



224 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

tliirty-six millions, the deaf, dumb, blind, deformed, idiotic, and those 
otherwise mutilated or disabled, amounted to almost two millions. We 
thus see that in a country of the highest civilization the effective strength 
of its population is reduced one-eighteenth by physical defects. What 
general would venture to conduct a campaign without ascertaining the 
physical qualities of his soldiers as well as the number on his rolls ? In 
this great industrial battle, which this nation is now fighting, we ought 
to take every available means to ascertain the effective strength of tlie 
country." 

Farther on he says: 

"An inquiry was also added in regard to dwellings, so as to exhibit 
the several principal materials for construction, as Avood, brick, stone, etc., 
and the value of each. Few things indicate more fully the condition of 
the people than the houses they occupy. The average home is not an 
imperfect picture of the wealth, comfort, refinement, and civilization of 
the average citizen." 

The next paragraph is devoted to the question of deter- 
minino: the number of voters. The Fourteenth Amendment to 
the Constitution reduced a State's representation in Congress 
to the measure of its votes. This was thought at the time to 
refer merely to the States where negroes were not allowed to 
vote, but Garfield found that in all the States, there were 
eighty restrictions in the right to vote, besides color and crime, rang- 
ing all the way from residence to education and character. 

Under the topic of agricultural products, he said: 

"It is believed that the schedule thus amended will enable us to 
ascertain the elements of those wonderful forces which have made our 
country the granary of the civilized world ; will exhibit also the defects of 
our agricultural methods, and stimulate our farmers to adopt those means 
which have doubled the agricultural jjroducts of England since the days 
of the Stuarts, and have more than doubled the comforts of her people. 
The extent of that great progress can be seen in such facts as these: 
that 'in the reign of Henry VII. fresh meat was never eaten even by 
the gentleman attendant on a great earl, except during the short interval 
between midsummer and Michaelmas,' because no adequate means were 



LEADER AND STATESMAN.—" BLACK FRIDAY." 225 

known of fattening cattle in the winter, or even of preventing tlie death 
of one-fifth of their wliole number each year; that Catharine, queen 
of Charles II. sent to Flanders for her salad, which the wretched gar- 
dening of England did not sutheiently provide." 

Under the head of corporation statistics, he makes the fol- 
lowing significant statement: 

"Now that the great question of liuman slavery is removed from the 
arena of American politics, I am persuaded that the next great question 
to be confronted, ivill be that of corporations, ami their relation to the inter- 
eds of the people and to the naCwnal life. The fear is now entertained by many: 
of our best men, that the National and State le<jidatnres of the Union, in cre- 
cdincj these vast corporations, have evoked a sjnrit which may escape and defy/ 
tlieir control and ivhich may ivield a power greater than legislatures Uiemsehes. 
The rapidity with which railroad corporations have been consolidated and 
placed within the power of a few men, during the jiast year, is not 
the least alarming manifestation of this power. Without here discussing 
the right of Congress to legislate on all the matters suggested in this di- 
rection, the committee have provided in this bill to arm the census oflice 
with the power to demand from these corporations a statement of the ele- 
ments of which they are composed and an exhibit of their transactions."' 

The Icarnhig, the philosophic and advanced views, the mas- 
terly grouping of social phenomena throughout this speech are 
ahsolutely novel and unique in the .wilderness of Congres- 
sional oratory. After all the wealth of industry and thought 
expended on the subject, the bill failed to pass the Senate, so 
that the ninth census had to be taken under the old law. 
The body of the bill, liowever, eventuall}^ became the law 
under which the unequaled census of 1880 was taken. 

As we advance through the multitude of General Garfield's 
congressional speeches, selecting here and there some typical 
extract, his report on " Black Friday" attracts attention. Ev- 
ery one remembers the gold panic of September 24, 18(9. 
It was the greatest financial conspiracv known to historv. 
Wall Street, the scene of innumerable frauds, snares, conspir- 
acies, and panics, never saw an}'- thing to compare with tlie 

historic "Black Friday." The House of Keprcscntatives aii- 
15 



226 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD; 

poiDted the Committee of Banking and Carrency of wliieli 
General Garfield had "been made chairman at the opening of 
the Forty-First Cono-ress, to investio-ate the causes of that finan- 
cial convulsion. He went to Xew York, incog., managed to get 
into the private room of the Gold Board, where the matter was 
undera-oino- a secret investiiration. Here General Garfield 
made notes, and got his clue. AVhen he could stay no longer, 
he left a clever substitute. Each witness was attached as he 
left the buildino- and hurried down to AVashington before lie 
could be primed. General Garfield's examination of the wit- 
nesses was adroit and successful. The taciturn and self-poised 
Gould, the wily and exuberant Jim Fisk, alike were compelled 
to lay open the full details of the scheme. General Garfield's 
report, made March 1,1870, goes to the bottom of this the dark- 
est conspiracy ever planned. It reads like a novel, and contains 
the material for a whole library of fiction. Some idea of the 
foul plot maybe had from the following summary and extracts: 

BLACK FRIDAY. 

"On the first of September, 1868, the price of gold was one lumdred 
and forty-five. During the autumn and winter it cantiuued to decline, 
interrupted only by occasional fluctuations, till in March, 1869, it touched 
one hundred and thirty and one-fourth (its lowest point for three years), 
and continued near that rate until the middle of April, the earliest period 
to which the evidence taken by the committee refers. At that time, 
jMr. Jay Gould, president of the Erie Railroad Company, bought seven 
millions of gold, and put up the price from one hundred and thirty-two 
to one hundred and forty. Other brokers followed his example, and by 
the twentieth of May had put up the price to one hundred and forty- 
four and seven-eighths, from which point, in spite of speculation, it 
continued to decline, and on the last day of July stood at one hundred 
and thirty-six. 

"The first indication of a concerted movement on the part of those 
who were prominent in the panic of September was an effort to secure 
the appointment of some person who should be subservient to their 
schemes, as Assistant Treasurer at 2^ew York, in place of Mr. H. H. 
Van Dyck, who resigned in the month of June. In this effort Mr. 



LEADER AND vSTATESMAN.— " BLACK FRIDAY " REPORT. 227 

Gould and Mr. A. R. Corbin, a brother-in-law of President Grant, appear 
to have been closely and intimately connected. If the testimony of the 
M'itnesses is to be believed, Mr. Corbin suggested the name of his step- 
son-in-law, Robert B. Catherwood, and Mr. Gould joined iu the sugges- 
tiv)n. 

"On what grounds Mr. Catherwood declined to be a candidate docs 
not appear. The parties next turned their attention to General Butter- 
field, and, both before and after his appointment, claimed to be his sup- 
porters. Gould and Catiierwoo^l testify that Corbin claimed to have 
secured the appointment, though Corbin swears that he made no recom- 
mendation in the case. General Butterfield was appointed Assistant 
Treasurer, and entered upon the duties of that office on the first of July. 
It is, however, proper to state that the committee has no evidence that 
General Butterfield was in any way cognizant of the corrupt schemes 
which led tlie conspirators to desire his appointment, nor that their rec- 
ommendations had any weight in securing it. In addition to these 
efforts, the conspirators resolved to discover, if possible, the purposes of 
the President and the Secretary of the Treasury in regard to the sales of 
gold. The first attempt in this direction, as exhibited in the evidence, 
was made on the 15th of June, when the President was on board one of 
]\[essrs. Fisk and Gould's Fall River steamers, on his way to Boston. At 
nine o'clock in the evening, supper was served on board, and the pres- 
ence at the table of such men as Cyrus W. Field, with several leading 
citizens of New York and Boston, was sufficient to prevent any suspiciiMi 
that this occasion was to be used for the l)enefit of private speculation ; 
but the testimony of Fisk and Gould indicates clearly the purpose they 
had in view. Fisk says: 

'"On our j)assage over to Boston with General Grant, we endeavored 
to ascertain, what his position iu regard to finances was. We went down 
to supper about nine o'clock, intending, while we were there, to have this 
thing pretty thoroughly talked up, and, if possible, to relieve him from 
any idea of putting the price of gold down.'" 

" ^Tr. Gould's account is as follows : 

" 'At this sup{)er the question came up about the state of the country, 
the crops, prospects ahead, etc. The President was a listener; the other 
gentlemen were discussing; some were in fiivor of Boutwoll's selling 
gold, and some opposed to it. After they had all intercliangcd views, 
some one asked the President what his view was. He reniai-ked that he 



228 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

thought there was a certain amount of fictitiousness about the prosperity 
of the country, and that the bubble might as Avell be tapped in one Avay 
as another. We supposed, from that conversation, that the President \Yas a 
contractionist. His remark struck across us hke a Avet blanket.' 
1 "It appears that these skillfully-contrived cffiu-ts elicited from the 
President but one remark, and this opened a gloomy prospect for the 
speculators. Upon their return to New York, Fisk and Gould deter- 
mined to bring a great pressure upon the administration, to prevent, if 
possible, a further decline in gold, wiiich would certainly interfere with 
their purposes of speculation. This was to be effected by facts and ar- 
guments presented in the name of the country and its business interests ; 
and a financial theory was agreed upon, which, on its face, would appeal 
to the business interests of the country, ana enlist in its support many 
patriotic citizens, but would, if adopted, incidentally enable the conspira- 
tors to make their speculations eminently successful. That theory was, 
that the business interests of the country required an advance in the 
price of gold ; that, in order to move the fall crops and secure the for- 
eign market fjr our grain, it was necessary tliat gold should be put up 
to 145. According to Mr. Jay Gould, this theory, for the benefit of 
American trade and commerce, was suggested by Mr. James McHenry, 
a prominent English financier, who furnished Mr. Gould the data with 
which to advocate it." 

This plan was tried vigorously. Hired new^spapcrs filled their 
editorial pages with arguments. Every mail brouglit pamphlets, 
papers, memorials, arguments, etc., to the silent President. 
Wherever he turned, some one was at hand to pour into his car a 
plea for the poor country. If the Government would sell no gold, 
the conspirators would have the market in their own hands. Men 
having contracts to furnish gold would have to buy of them at 
any price. There was no word from Grant, but the conspirators 
continued to buy up gold. Gould took in a partner : 

"Fisk was told that Corbin had enlisted the interests of persons high 
in authority, that tlie President, Mrs. Grant, General Porter, and Gen- 
eral Butterfield were corruptly interested in the movement, and that the 
Secretary of the Treasury had been forbidden to sell gold. Though these 
declarations, were wickedly false, as the evidence abundantly shows, yet 



LEADER AND STATESMAN.— "BLACK FRIDAY" REPORT. 229 

the coinpounded villainy presented by Gould and Corbin was too tempt- 
ing a bait for Fisk to resist. He joined the movement at onee, and 
brouirht to its aid all the force of his maji-netic and infectious enthusiasm. 
The malign influence which Catiline wielded over the reckless and 
abandoned youth of Kome, iinds a fitting parallel in the power which 
Fisk carried into Wall Street, when, followed by the thugs of Erie and 
the del)auchees of the Oi)era House, he swept into the gold-room and de- 
fied both the Street and the Treasur5^ Indeed, the whole gcdd move- 
ment is not an unworthy copy of that great conspiracy to lay Rome in 
ashes and deluge its streets in blood, for the purpose of enriching those 
who were to apply the torch and wield the dagger. 

" With the great revenue of the Erie Railway Company at their com- 
mand, and having converted the Tenth National BAnk into a manufac- 
tory of certified checks to be used as cash at their pleasure, they terri- 
fied all opponents by the gigantic power of their combination, and amazed 
and dazzled the dissolute gamblers of Wall Street by declaring that they 
Lad in league with them tlie chief officers of the National Government, 

" They gradually pushed the price of gold from one hundred and 
thirty-five and one-half, where it stood on the morning of the thirteenth 
of September, until, on the evening of Wednesday, the twenty-second, 
they held it firm at one hundred and forty and one-half 

"The conspirators had bought sixty millions of gold up to that date. 
Every thing depended on Grant's preventing the sale of gold by the 
Treasury- Brother-in-law Corbin was to manage that. . Every cent ad- 
vance in gold added $15,000 to Corbin's profit. Ou the 17th, it was de- 
termined to have Corbin write a long letter to the President. 

" The letter contained no reference to the private speculation of Corl)in, 
but urged the President not to interfere in the fight then going on be- 
tween the bulls and bears, nor to allow the Secretary of the Treasury to 
do so by any sales of gold. The letter also repeated the old ai-guments 
in regard to transportation of the crops. 

" While Corbin was writing it, Gould called upon Fisk to furnish his 
most faithful servant to carry the letter. W. O. Chapin was d&signated 
as the messenger, and early on the following morning went to IMr. Coi*- 
bin's house and received it, together with a note to General Portei-. lie 
was instructed to proceed with all possible haste, and telograjih Fisk as 
soon as the letter was delivered. He reached Pittsburgh a little after 
midnight, and, proceeding at ouce by carriage to Wa.~liington, Pcnnsyl- 



230 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. . " 

vania, thirty miles distant, delivered the letter to the President, and, 
after \vaiting some time, asked if there was any answer. The President 
told him there was no answer, and he hurried away to the nearest telegraph 
office and sent to Mr. Fisk this dispatch : ' Letters delivered all right,' and 
then returned to New York. Mr. Fisk ai)pears to have interpreted the- 
'rdl right' of the dispatch as an answer to the doctrine of the Corbia 
letter, and says he proceeded in his enormous purchases upon that suppo- 
sition. This letter, which Corbiii had led his co-conspirators to trust 
as their safeguard against interference from INIr. Boutwell, finally pi'oved 
their ruin. Its efiect was the very reverse of what they anticipated. 
The letter would have been like hunch-eds of other letters received by 
the President, if it had not been for the fact that it was sent by a special 
messenger from Xew York to Washington, Pennsylvania, the messenger 
having to t:d^e a carriage and ride some twenty-eight miles from Pitts- 
burgh. This letter, sent in that way, urging a certain policy on the ad- 
ministration, taken in connection with some rumors that had got into the 
newspapers at that time as to JNIr. Corbin's having become a great bull 
in gold, excited the President's suspicions, and he believed that Mr. 
Corbin must have a pecuniary interest in those speculations ; that he was 
not actuated simply by a desire to see a certain policy carried out for the 
benefit of the administration. Feeling in that way, he suggested to IMrs. 
Grant to say, in a letter she was writing to ]\Irs. Corbin, that rumors had 
reached her that Mr. Corbin was connected with speculators in New 
York, and that she hoped tliat if this Avas so he would disengage himself 
from them at once; that he (tha President) was very much distressed at 
such rumors. She wrote a letter that evening. It was received in New 
York on the evening of Wednesday, the twenty-secf)nd. Late that night 
Mr. GouLl called at Corbin's house. Corbin disclosed the contents of tlie 
letter, and they sat down to consider its significance. This letter created 
the utmost alarm in the minds of both of these conspirators. The 
picture of these two men that night, as presented in the evidence, is a re- 
markable one. Shut up in the library, near midnight, Corbin was bend- 
ing over the table and straining with dim eyes to decipher and read the 
contents of a letter, written in pencil, to his wife, while the great gold 
gambler, looking over his shoulder, caught with his sharper vision every 
word." 

Corbin tried to get Gould to buy him out, so as to tell the Presi- 
dent he had no interest in the market. Gould, too, plotted to save 



LEADER AND STATESMAN.— " BLACK FRIDAY" RERORT. 2:^ 

hiiiLsclf by mining his oo-cons]iirators. Tlun' licld n mooting. 
Gould secretly sold to Fisk and liis associates. The latter, of 
course, had no idea that it avus Gould they woi'c buying out. The 
meeting resolved to force gold up to IGO on the next day ("Black 
Tridav"), publish a list of all firms who had contracts to furnish 
o-old, offer to settle with them at the price named before three 
o'clock, but threatening higher prices to all who delayed: 

" While this desperate work Ava.s going on in Xew York, its alarming 
and ruinous effects v/erc reaeliing and paralyzing the business of 
the whole country, and carrying terror and ruin to thousands. Busi- 
ness men everywhere, from Boston to San Francisco, read disaster 
in every new bulletin. The price of gold fluctuated so ra})idly that 
the telegraphic indicatoi-s could not keep pace with its movement. The 
compliciited mechanism of these indicators is moved by the electric cur- 
rent carried over telegraphic wire.< directly from the gold-room, and it 
is in evidence tliat in many instances these wires were melted or burned 
off in the efforts of the operators to keep up with the news. 

" The President returned from Pennsylvania to Washington on Thurs- 
dav, the twenty-third, and that evening had a consultation with the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury concerning the condition of the gold market. The 
testimony of Mr. Boutwell shows that both the President and himself 
concurred in the opinion that they shoidd, if p(^sible, avoid any inter- 
ference on the part of the Government in a contest where both parties 
were struggling for private gain ; but both agreed that if the price of 
sold should be forced still hiirher, so as to threaten a general financial 
panic, it would be their duty to interfere and protect the business inter- 
ests of the country- The next morning the price advanced rai)idly, and 
telegrams poured into Washington from all parts of the country, exhil)- 
iting the general alarm, and urging the Government to interfere, and, if 
possible, prevent a iinancial crLsis. 

At 11:42 A, M. came the crack of doom, 

Tkkasvry Department, September 24, 1SC9. 
" Danid Buiterfield, Assistant Treasurer, United States, Xew York: 
"Sell four millions (4,000,000) gold to-morrow, and buy four millions 
(4,000,000) bonds. Gi:oR(:i-: S. Boutwkll, Secy Trcasin-y. 

" Charge to Department. Sent 11 : 42 A. M." 
"Within the^imce of fifteen minutes the price fell fr(jm one h-judred 



232 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAPwFIELD. 

and sixty to one hundred and thirty-three, and in the language of one 
of the witnesses, half of Wall Street was involved in ruin. 

'■ It was not without ditficulty that the conspirators escaped from the 
fury of their victims and took refuge in their up-town stronghold —the 
oiEce of the Erie Railroad Company. 

'•'During the dav and morning previous, the conspiratoi-s had succeeded 
in forcinir manv settlements at rates ruinous to their victims." 

On ]March 14, 1870, General Garfield spoke on the subject of 
the civil service. The speech aboituded in details, and was pointed 
with references to classes of salaries which were too high. On 
April 1st of the same session, he delivered a great speech on the 
tariff question. It Avas characterized by its conservative avoid- 
ance of extremes, and will stand as the best expression of modern 
scholarship, practical stat9smanship on this most important public 
question. It is probable that there can nowhere be foimd an 
argument on the subject of the tariff which more nearly approaches 
perfect legislative wisdom. 

In 1870, the total amount of national bank circulation being 
limited by law to ^300,000,000 and largely absorbed in the East, 
a cry arose in the South and West against this injustice. General 
Garfield drew up and presented a bill which became a law, increasing 
the limit 854,000,000, and providing for the cancellation of the 
surplus of notes in States having more than their quota, as fast as 
the Southern and Western States, having less than their quota, or- 
ganized national banks and commenced to issue currency. It was 
a just measure, and was exactly in the line of future legislation, 
but the AVestern and Southern States had no capital to invest for 
banking purposes, and consequently availed themselves but slightly 
of the opportunity. The measure, however, was of a character to 
allay public clamor, demonstrate the folly of the outcry- against the 
existing law, and facilitate the progress toward resumption. It 
was the forenmner of the law, removing all limit to national bank 
circulation, and making the v(»lume of the currency adjustable to 
the demand. General Garfield's great speech on the bill, deliv- 
ered June 7, 1870, has been the inexhaustible quiver from which 
most of the arrows of financial discussion have since been drawn 



LEADER AXD STATESMAN.— HOUSE vs. SENATE. 233 

by all smaller marksmen. A second speech on the same subject 
on June 15th, Mas but little its inferior. 

The last day of the Forty-First Congress witnessed a remarkable 
attempt of the Senate to encroach upon the constitutional prerog- 
ative of the House to originate all bills for raising revenues, the 
claim being that the measure was one to reduce revenue instead of 
7'alsh}^ it. It was a bill to abolish the income tax. GarHeld 
favored the reduction, but an encroachment which might become a 
dangerous precedent had to be resisted. His argument covered the 
vast field of the history of the House of Commons, the debates of the 
Constitutional Convention, and the precedents of Congress. His 
conclusions were : 

First. — That the exclusive riglit of the House of Cummon.s of Great 
Britain to originate money bill.*, is so old that the date of its origin is 
unknown; it has always been regarded as one of the strongest bulwarks 
of British freedom against usurpation of the King and of the House of 
Lords, and has been guarded with the most jealous care; that in the 
many contests which have arisen on this subject l)etween the Lords and 
Commons, during the last three hundred years, tlie Commons have never 
given way, but have rather enlarged than diiiiiuished their jurisdiction 
of this subject; and tliat since the year 1678, the Lords have conceded, 
with scarcely a struggle, that the Commons had the exclusive right to 
originate, not only bills for raising revenue, but for decreasing it ; not 
only for imposing, but also for repealing taxes; and that the .same ex- 
clusive riglit extended also to all genei-al appropriations of money. 

Second. — The clause of our Constitution, now under debate, was bor- 
rowed from this feature of the British Constitutiim, and was intended to 
have the same force and effect in all respects as the corresponding clause 
of the British Constitution, with this single exception, that our Senate is 
permitted to offer aniendmnnts, as the House of Lords is not. 

Third.—Jn addition to the influence of the British example, Avas the 
further fact, that this clause was placed in our Constitution to counter- 
lialance some special ]>rivil('(2:es granted to the Senate. It was the com- 
pensating weight thrown into the scale to make the two blanches of 
Congress equal in authority and power. It was first i)ut into the Con- 
stitution to compensate the large States for the advantages given to the 
small States in allowing them an ccpial representation in the Senate; 



234 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

autl, Avhen suteequently it was throwu out of the original draft, it came 
near unhinging the whole plan. 

"It was reinserted in the last great compromise of the Constitution, to 
offset the exclusive right of the Senate to ratify ti-eaties, confirm appoint- 
ments, and try impeachments. The construction given to it by the mem- 
bers of the Constitutional Convention, is the same which this House now 
contends for. The same construction was asserted broadly and fully, by 
the First Congress, many of the members of which were framers of the 
Constitution. It has been asserted again and again, in the various Con- 
gresses, from the First till now; and, though the Senate has often at- 
tempted to invade this privilege of the House, yet in no instance has 
the House surrendered its riglit Avhenever that right has been openly 
challenged; and, finally, whenever a contest has arisen, many leading 
Senators have sustained the right of the House as now contended for. 

t 
i^ *|C ^ *T^ *^ ^J-* 'f* "T^ 

"Again, if the Senate may throw their wliole weight, political and moral, 
into the scale in favor of the repeal or reduction of one class of taxes, 
they may thereby compel the House to originate bills, to impose new 
taxes, or increase old ones to make up the deficiency caused by the re- 
peal begun in the Senate, and thus accomplish by indirection, what the 
Constitution plainly prohibits. What Mr. Seward said in 1856, of the 
encroachment of the Senate, is still more strikingly true to-day. 

"The tendency of the Senate -is constantly to encroach, — not only up- 
on the jurisdiction of the House, but upon tlie rights of the Chief Ex- 
ecutive of the nation. The power of confirming appointments is ra])idly 
becoming a means by which the Senate dictates appointments. The 
Constitution gives to the President the initiative in appointments, as it 
gives to the House the initiative in revenue legislation. Evidences are 
not wanting that both these rights are every year subjected to new inva- 
sions. If, in the past, the Executive has been compelled to give way to 
the pressure, and has, in some degree yielded his constitutional rights, 
it is all the more necessary that this House stand firm, and yield no jot 
or tittle of that great right intrusted to us for the protection of the 
people." 

This speech -was absolutely conclusive on the question, and must 
take its place -with all the immortal arguments and efforts put 



LEADER AND STATESMAN.— COMMITTEE OF APPEOrKIATIONS. 235 

forth ill the past to preserve the rights of tlie popular branch of 
national legislature. February 20, 1871, General Garfield deliv- 
ered a powerful speech against the Mc-Garraghan claim, one of the 
manv jobs of which Congress was the victim. 

General Garfield was by this timo recognized as the highest au- 
thority on the intricate subjects of finance, revenue, and expendi- 
ture, in the House. It will be seen that these topics fall within 
the general head of iiolitical cconomv. " the dismal science." Of 
these he was the acknowledged master. Accordingly, at the be- 
ginning of the Forty-Second Congress, in 1871, Garfield was made 
chairman of the Committee of Appropriations. It is probable 
that in this capacity he never had an equal. Something must be 
said of his work. ' 

In order to master the great subject of public expenditures, he 
studied the history of those of European nations. He read the 
"budget speeches" of the English chancellors of the exchequer 
for a long period. Pie refreshed his German, and studied French, 
in order to read the best works in the world on the subjects, the 
highest authorities being in those languages. He examined the 
British and French appropriations for a long period. After 
an exhaustive study of the history of foreign nations, he com- 
menced with our own country at the time of the Revolution. 
Charles Sumner was the greatest reader, and had the longest book 
list at the Congressional Library of any man in AVashington. The 
library records show that General Garfield's list was next to Sum- 
ner's, being; but sliohtlv below it. After Sumner's death, the man 
who was second became first. This gathering of facts was fi)l- 
lowed by Avide inductions. National expenditures were lound by 
him to be subject to a law as fixed as that of gravitation. There 
was a proportion between population, area of country, and the 
necessary outlay for public expenses, which was fixed. Any thing 
beyond this was waste. No covering could hide official robbery 
fi'om the reach of such a detective as the establishment of this 
law. Every miscreant left a tell-tale track. 

The results of his studies were embodied in an elaborate speech 



236 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

on January 22, 1872, in the introduction of his appropriation bill. 
Tiie close study of political economy, however, did not divert him 
from other questions. He kept himself thoroughly versed on every 
question of public imjjortauce and was always equal to every de- 
mand. 

On April 4, 1871, he delivered a speech in opposition to a Re- 
publican bill for the enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment. 
At the time it brought down upon him the censure of his party. 
But he was firm. There could be no doubt of his loyalty to the 
nation, and his distrust of tlie malignant South. But he was too 
conservative for the war leaders and politicians. A compromise 
was effected, with vvhich, however, his opponents were much dis- 
satisfied. 

Another notable speech Avas made on the bill to establish an 
educational fund from the proceeds of the sale of public lands. 
The speech' abounded in citations from English, French, and 
German authorities on the subject of education. One doctrine 
enunciated was that matters of education belong to the State gov- 
ernments, not to the nation ; that Congress made no claim to inter- 
fere in the method, but only to assist in the work. 

In the summer of 1872, General Garfield undertook a delicate 
mission to the Flat-Head Indians. Their removal was required 
by the Government. But the noble red man refused to stir an inch 
from his ancestral hunting-grounds. Garfield's mission was to be 
the last pacific effort. He was successful when the department 
had given up hope in any resource but war. 

On his return from the West, General Garfield found the Credit 
Mobilier scandal looming up like a cyclone in the Congressional 
sky. Living a life of study, research, and thought, of sjiotless 
character and the purest intention, he was inexpressibly pained. 
A private letter of December 31, 1872, to his bosom friend Hins- 
dale, is indicative of his feelings: 

"The Credit ]\Iobilier scandal lias given me much pain. As I told 
5^ou last fall, I feared it would turn and that the company itself Avas a 
bad thing. So I think it will, and perhaps some members of Congress 
were conscientiously parties to its plans. It has been a new form of trial 



LEADEE AND STATESMAN.— CREDIT MOBILIER. 237 

for me to see my name flying the rounds of the press in connection Avith 
the basest of crimes. It is not enough for one to know thtit liis heart 
and motives have been pure and true, if he is not sure but that good 
men here and there, who do not know him, will set him down among 
the lowest men of doubtful morality. There is nothing in my relation 
to the case for which the tenderest conscience of the most scrupulous 
honor can blame me. It is fortunate that I never fully concluded to 
accept the offer made me ; but it grieves me greatly to have been 
neirotiatino; with a man who had so little sense of truth and honor as to 
use his i)roposals for a purpose in a way now apparent to me, I shall 
go before the committee, and in due time before the House, with a full 
statement of all that is essential to the case, so far as I am concerned. 
You and I are now nearly in middle life, and have not yet become 
soured and shriveled with the wear and tear of life. Let us pray to 
be delivered from that condition where life and nature have no fresh, 
sweet sensations for us," 

His correspondence at tliis time with President Hinsdale, in 
which he uncovers his secret heart, is full of expressions of disgust 
Avith politics, " where ten years of honest toil goes for nauglit in 
the face of one vote," as he says. Once he declares: " Were it not 
for the Credit Mobilicr, I believe I would resign." How plainly 
his character appears in the following little extract: 

"You know that I have always said that my whole public life was 
an experiment to determine whether an intelligent people would sustain 
a man in acting sensibly on each proposition that arose, and in domg 
nothing for mere show or for demagogical effect. I do not now remember 
that I ever cast a vote of that latter sort." Perhaps it is time that the 
demaffojrue will succeed when honorable statesmanship will fail. If so, 
public life is the hollowest of all shams," 

In another letter to Colonel Rockwell, he speaks from his heart : 

"I think of you as away, and in an elysium of quiet and peace, where 
I should love to be, out of the storm and in the sunshine of love aud 
books. Do not think from the above that I am despondent. There is 
life and hope and fight in your old friend yet." 

It is hardly possible to understand the tortures which his sensi- 
tive nature underwent at this time. To an honest man the worst 



238 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

pain comes from the poisoned dagger of mistrust. At a later day, 
General Garfield was to make his defense to his constituents. 

During this j^)lague of heart and brain, there was no remission 
of the enormous activity in the chosen field of finance, revenue, 
and expenditure. But we can only plant foot upon the mountain 
peaks as we pass over the Alps of General Garfield's Congressional 
la1)ors. March 5, 1874, he delivered another great speech on 
^'Eevenues and Public Expenditures." 

On April 8, 1874, the first great " inflation " bill, by which the 
effects of the terrible panic of 1873 w^ere to be relieved or cured, 
came up for discussion. General Garfield exhausted history in 
his opposition to the bill. It must be remembered that his con- 
stituents were clamoring for the passage of this bill which was 
to make money plenty. Taking his political life in his hand, he 
fouglit it with all his power. As in 1866, 1868, 1869, 1870, and 
1871, so, in 1874, he said that " next to the great achievements of 
the nation in putting down the rebellion, destroying its cause, and 
reuniting the Republic on the principle of liberty and equal 
rights to all, is the task of paying the fabulous expenses of the 
war, the funding of the debt, the maintenance of public credit, and 
the launching of the nation on its career of prosperity." The 
speech contains citations of authority against inflation and irre- 
deemable paper currency from John Stuart ]Mill, Benjamin Frank- 
lin, R. H. Lee, "Washington, Adams, Peletiah Webster, Alexander 
Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, AVebster, Gouge, Calhoun, and 
Chase. The reader will remember that tlie measure passed the 
House and the Senate by overwhelming majorities, but was struck 
dead by the talisman of President Grant's veto. 

On June 23, 1874, General Garfield spoke at length on the 
subject of appropriations for the year. In this address, as in all 
others upon this topic, he handled figures and statistics with the 
greatest skill and familiarity. The House had come to rely upon 
his annual speech on this subject for its information on the ex- 
penses of the Government. 

Almost at the same time he delivered a speech on the Railway 
Problem. The pending question was upon making certain appro- 



LEADER AND STATESMAN.— RAILWAYS. 239 

priatlons for River, Harbor, and Canal Surveys, as a preliminary 
to cheaper transportation. General Garfield endeavored to have a 
similar commission organized on the Railway question. He felt 
that any investigation of cheap transportation was^ lame which did 
not include "the greatest of our modern means of transportation, 
the Railway.'"' We quote a part of his discussion, which must be 
of interest to every reader: 

THE RAILWAY PROBLEM. 

""\Vc are so involved in the events and movements of society that we do 
not stop to realize— what is undeniably true — that during the last forty 
years all modern societies have entered upon a period of change, more 
marked, more pervading, more radical than any that lias occurred during 
the last three hundred years. In saying this, I do not forget our own polit- 
icid and military history, nor the French Revolution of 1 793. The changes 
now taking jilace have been wrought, and are being wrought, mainly, 
almost wholly, by a single mechanical contrivance, the steam locomo- 
tive. Tlierc are many persons now living who well remember the day 
when Andrew Jackson, after four Aveeks of toilsome travel from his home 
in Tennessee, reached Washington and took his first oath of office as 
President of the United States. On that day, the railway locomotive did 
not exist. During that year, Henry Clay was struggling to make his 
name immortal by linking it with the then vast project of building a 
national road — a turnpike — from the national capital to the banks of the 
Mississippi. 

"In the autumn of that very year George Stephenson ran his first 
experimental locomotive, the ' Rocket,' from JManchcster to Liverpool 
and back. The rumble of its wheels, redoubled a million times, is echo- 
ins: to-dav on every continent. 

"In 1870, there were about 125,000 miles of railroad on the two hem- 
ispheres, constructed at a cost of little less than 8100,000 i^er mile, and 
representing nearly $12,000,000,000 of invested capital. 

" A parliamentary commission found that during the year 1866 the 
railway cars of Great Britain carried an average of 850,000 passengers 
])crday; and during that year the work done by their 8,125 locomotives 
would have required for its ix?rforniance three and a half million horses 
and nearly two million men. 

"What have our people done for the locomotive, and what has it 



2-10 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

done for us? To tlie United States, with its vast territorial area, the 
raih'oad was a vital necessity. 

"Talleyrand once said to the first Napoleon that 'the United States 
was a giant without bones.' Since that time our gristle has bee« rapidly 
hardenhi . Sixty-seven thousand miles of iron track is a tolerable 
skeleto.i, even for a giant. AVhen this new power appeared, our people 
every 'A- -ere felt the necessity of setting it to work; and individuals, 
citie-, States, and the nation lavished tlieir resources without stint to 
ma'.ic a pathway for it. Fortunes Avere sunk under almost every mile 
of our earlier roads in the effort to capture and utilize this new power. 
If the State did not head the subscription for a new road, it usually 
came to the rescue before the work was completed. 

"The lands given by the States and by the national Government to 
aid in the construction of railroads, reach an aggregate of nearly two 
hundred and fifty million acres — a territory equal to nine times the area 
of Ohio. "With these vast resources we have made- paths for the steam 
giant; and to-day nearly a quarter of a million of our business and work- 
ing men are in his immediate service. Such a power naturally attractsS 
to its enterprise the brightest and sti'ongest intellects. It would be diffi- 
cult to find in any other profession so large a proportion of men pos- 
sessed of a high order of business ability as those who construct, manage, 
and operate our railroads. 

" The American people have done much for the locomotive ; and it has 
done much for them. "We have already seen that it has greatly reduced, 
if not wholly destroyed, the danger that the Government will fall to pieces 
by its own weight. The railroad has not only brought our people and their 
industries together, but it lias carried civilization into the v»ilderness, has 
built up States and Teii'itories, which but fin- its power would have 
remained deserts for a century to come. ' Abroad and at home,' as Mr. 
Adams tersely declares, 'it has equally nationalized j^eople and cosmop- 
olizcd nations.' It has played a most important part in the recent 
movement for the unification and preservatiou of nations. 

"It enabled us to do what the old military science had pronounced 
impossible — to conquer a revolted iwpulation of eleven millions, occu- 
pying a territory one-fifth as large as the continent of Europe. In an 
able essay on the' railway system, Mr. Charles F. Ad;iras, Jr., has pointed 
out some of the remarkable achievements of the railroad in our recent 
history. For example, a single railroad track enabled Sherman to main- 



LEADER AND STATESMAN.— RAILWAYS. 241 

tain eighty thousand fighting men three hundred miles beyond his base 
of suppUes. Another line, in a space of seven days, brought a reinforce- 
ment of two fully-equipped army corps around a circuit of thirteen luuulred 
miles, to strengthen an army at a threatened point. He calls attention 
to the still more striking fact that for ten years past, with fifteen hundred 
millions of our indebtedness abroad, an enormous debt at home, unjjur- 
alleled public expenditures, and a depreciated paper currency, in defiance 
of all past experience, we have been steadily conquering our difficulties, 
have escaped the predicted collapse, and are promptly meeting our en- 
gngements; because, through energetic railroad development, the country 
has been producing real wealth, as no country has produced it before. 
Finally, he sums up the case by declaring that the locomotive has 
'dragged the country through its difficulties in spite of itself.' 

"In discussing this theme, we must not make an indiscriminate attack 
upon corporations. The corporation limited to its proper uses is one of 
the most valuable of the many useful creations of law. One class of 
corporations lias played a most important and conspicuous part in 
securing the liberties of mankind. It was the municipal corporations — 
the free cities and chartered towns — that preserved and devdoped the 
spirit of freedom during the darkness of the IMiddle Ages, and power- 
fully aided in the overthrow of the feudal system. The charters of 
London and of the lesser cities and towns of England made the most 
efiective resistance to the tyranny of Charles II. and the judicial sav- 
agery of Jeffries. The spirit of the free town and the chartered colony 
taught our own fathers how to win their independence. The Isew En- 
gland township was the political unit which formed the basis of most of 
our states. 

"This class of corporations have been most useful, and almost always 
safe, because they have been kept constantly within the control of the 
community for whose benefit they were created. The State has never 
surrendered the power of amending their charters. 

"Under the name "of private corporations organizations have grown 
up, not for the perpetuation of a great charity, like a college or hospital, 
not to enable a company of citizens more conveniently to carry on a pri- 
vate industry, but a class of corporations unknown to the early law 
writers has arisen, and to them have been committed the vast powers of 
the railroad and the telegraph, the great instruments by which modern 
communities live, move, and have their being. 

IG 



IIP 

* 242 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

" Since the dawn of history, the great thoroughfares have belonged to 
the people, have been known as the king's highways or the public high- 
ways, and have been open to the free use of all, on payment of a 
small uniform tax or toll to keep them in repair. But now the most 
perfect and by far the most important roads known to mankind are 
owned and managed as private proj)erty by a comparatively small num- 
ber of private citizens. 

' ' In all its uses the railroad is the most public of all our roads ; and 
in all the objects to which its work relates, the railway corporation is as 
public as any organization can be. But in the start it was labeled a 
private corporation ; and, so far as its legal status is concerned, it is now 
grouped with eleemosynary institutions and private charities, and enjoys 
similar immunities and exemptions. It remains to be seen how long 
the community will suffer itself to be the victim of an abstract definition. 

" It will be readily conceded that a corporation is strictly and really 
private when it is authorized to carry on such a business as a private 
citizen may carry on. But when the State has delegated to a corporation 
the sovereign right of eminent domain, the riglit to take from tlie pri- 
vate citizen, without his consent, a portion of his real estate, to build its 
structure across farm, garden, and lawn, into and through, over or under, 
the blocks, squares, streets, churches, and dwellings of incorporated 
cities and towns, across navigable rivers, and over and along public high- 
ways, it requires a stretch of the common imagination and much refine- 
ment and subtlety of the law to maintain the old fiction that such an 
organization is not a public coj-poration. 

"In view of the facts already set forth, the question returns, what is 
likely to be the efllect of railway and other similar combinations upon 
our community and our political institutions ? Is it true, as asserted by 
the British writer quoted above, that the state must soon recapture and 
control the railroads, or be captured and subjugated by them ? Or do 
the phenomena Ave are witnessing indicate that general breaking-up of the 
social and political order of modern nations so confidently predicted liy a 
class of philosophers v/hose opinions have hitherto made but little impres- 
sion on the public mind? 

"The analogy between the industrial condition of society at the pres- 
ent time and the feudalism of the Middle Ages is both striking and in^ 
structive. 

' ' In the darkness and chaos of that period the feudal system was the 



LEADER AND STATESMAN.- EAILWAYS. 243 ^^ 

first important step toward the organization of modern nations. Power- 
ful chiefs and barons entreuclied themselves in castles, and in return for 
submission and service gave to theii- vassals rude protection and ruder 
laws. But as the feudal chiefs grew in power and wealth they became 
the ojipressors of their people, taxed and robbed them at will, and finally 
in their arrogance, defied the kings and emperors of the mediteval states. 
From their castles, planted on the great thoroughfares, they practiced 
the most capricious extortions on commerce and travel, and thus gave to 
modern language the phrase, ' levy black-mail.' 

"The consolidation of our great industrial and commercial companies, 
the power they wield and the relations they sustain to the state and to 
the industry of the people, do not fall far short of Fourier's definition of 
commercial or industrial feudalism." The modern barons, more powerful 
than their military prototypes, own our greatest highways and levy tribute 
at will upon all our vast industries. And as the old feudalism was finally 
controlled and subordinated only by the combined efforts of the kings and 
the ]ieople of the free cities and towns, so our modern feudalism can be 
subordinated to the public good only by the great body of the people, 
acting through the government by wise and just laws. 

" I shall not now enter upon the discussion of methods by which this 
grand work of adjustment may be accomplished. But I refuse to believe 
that the genius and energy which have developed these tremendous forces 
will fail to make them, not the masters, but the faithful servants of 
society." 

This chapter has so far been devoted to General Garfield's pub- 
lic life during this period. One would think that what has been 
recounted occupied all his time and powers. Not so. With his 
political and financial studies he kept up his literary life. On 
June 29, 18G9, he delivered an oration, before the Commercial 
College in "Washington City, on the " Elements of Success." We 
select a few thought-flowers from the blooming garden of the ad- 
dress. At the outset he said : 

" I feel a profounder reverence for a boy than a man: I never meet a 
ragged boy on the street without feeling that I owe him a salute, for I 
know not what possibilities may be buttoned up under his shal)by coat. 
When I meet you in the full flush of mature life, I sec nearly all tlicre 
is of you ; but among these boys are the great men of the future — the 



244 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

heroes of the next generation, the philosophers, the statesmen, the phi- 
lanthropists, the great reformers and mokiers of the next age. There- 
fore, I say, there is a pecuHar charm to me in the exhibitions of young 
people engaged in the business of education." . . . 

Speaking of the modern college curriculum, he said : 

"The prevailing system was established at a time when the learning 
of the world was in Latin and Greek ; when, if a man would learn 
arithmetic, he must first learn Latin ; and if he would learn the history 
and geography of his own country, he could acquire that knowledge only 
through the Latin language. Of course, in those days it was necessary 
to lay the foundation of learning in a knowledge of the learned lan- 
guages. The universities of Europe, from which our colleges were copied, 
were founded before the modern languages were born. The leading lan- 
guages of Europe are scarcely six hundred years old. The reasons for a 
course of study then are not good now. The old necessities have passed 
away. We now have strong and noble living languages, rich in litera- 
ture, replete with high and earnest tho/^'xht, — the language of science, 
religion, and liberty, — and yet we bid our children feed their spirits on 
the life of dead ages, instead of the inspiring life and vigor of our own 
times. 

" The present Chancellor of the British Exchequer, the Eight Honor- 
able Robert Lowe, one of the brightest minds in that kingdom, said, in 
a recent address before the venerable University of Edinburgh : ' I was 
a few months ago in Paris, and two graduates of Oxford w^ent with me 
to get our dinner at a restaurant, and if the white-aproned waiter had 
not been better educated than all three of us, we might have starved to 
death. We could not a.sk for our dinner in his language, but fortu- 
nately he could ask us in our own language what we wanted.' There 
was one test of the insufficiency of modern education. . . . 

" Let me beg you, in the outset of your career, to dismiss from your 
minds all idea of succeeding by luck. There is no more common thought 
among young people than that foolish one that by-and-by something will 
turn up by which they will suddenly achieve fame or fortune. No, 
young gentlemen; things don't turn up in this world unless somebody 
turns them up. Inertia is one of the indispensable laws of matter, and 
things lie flat where they are until by some intelligent spirit (for noth- 
ing but spirit makes motion in this world) they are endowed with ac- 



LEADER AND STATESMAN.— LITEKAKY LIFE. 245 

tivity iiud liie. Luck is an ignis futuus. You nuiy follow it to ruin, 
but not to success. The great Napoleon, who believed in his destiny, fol- 
lowed it until he saw his star go down in blackest night, when the Old 
Guard perished rouud him, and Waterloo was lost. A jDound of pluck 
is worth a ton of luck. 

" Poverty is uncomfortable, as I can testify; but nine times out of ten 
the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard, 
and compelled to sink or swim for himself. In all my acquaintance I 
have never known one to be drowned who was worth saving. This would 
not be wholly true in any country but one of political equality like ours. 
The editor of one of the leadiug magazines of England told me, not many 
months ago, a fact startling enough in itself, but of great significance to 
a poor man. He told me that he had never yet known, in all his ex- 
perience, a single boy of the class of farm-laborers (not those who own 
farms, but mere farm-laborers) who had ever risen above his class. Boys 
from the manufacturing and commercial classes had risen frequently, but 
from the farm-labor class he had never known one. 

"The reason is this: in the aristocracies of the Old World, wealth 
and society are built up like the strata of rock which compose the crust 
of the earth. If a boy be born in the lowest stratum of life, it is almost 
impossible for him to rise through this hard crust into the higher ranks; 
but in this coiintrj'' it is not so. The strata of our society resembles 
rather the ocean, where every drop, even the lowest, is free to mingle 
with all others, and may shine at last on the crest of the highest wave." 

His correspondence is full of glimpses of literary life. At one 
time he breaks into glee over a new^ book. At another he solemnly 
urges the necessity of his friend Hinsdale and liim.self mastering 
French and German. Again he sighs for more time to read, and, 
with the reader's inconsistency, gives an elaborate criticism of some 
book he had just finished. Once he says: 

"I can't see that John Stuart Mill ever came to comprehend human 
life as a reality from the actual course of 'human affairs beginning with 
Greek life down to our own. Men and women were always, with him, 
nujre or less of the nature of abstractions ; while, with his enormous mass 
of books, he learned a wonderful power of analysis, for which he was by 
nature surprisingly fitted. But his education was narrow just where his 
own mind was originally deficient. He was educated solely through' 



/ 246 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

books; for his father was never a companion. His brothers and sisters 
bored him. He had no playfellows, and of his mother not a tvord is said 
in his autobiography." 

The last fact mentioned must have seemed remarkable to Gar- 
field. In another letter, he says: 

"Permit me to transcribe a metrical version which I made the other 
day of the third ode of Horace's first book. It is still in the rough." 

And then he actually gives a full translation of the poem : " To the 
Ship which carried Virgil to Athens." At the close, he naively 
says : " I can better most of the verses." Every peep of his private 
life has an exquisite charm. It perpetually surprises one with its 
frankness, its simplicity, and artless affection. In Homer's Iliad, 
the great Hector, clad in dazzling armor and helmet, stoops to kiss 
his child before going forth to mortal combat. But the child drew 
back, afraid of his strange and terrible aspect. Swiftly the father 
removed the panoply of war, and then stooped to the child to be 
received wdth outstretched arms. In the fierce arena of debate 
we see Garfield clad with the stern helmet and buckler of battle. 
But in his private life he laid aside the armor, and stood forth in 
all the beauty of a grand, simple, and affectionate nature. 

During the period covered by this chapter his home re- 
mained at Iliram, Ohio, w^liere he spent his vacations from 
Congress. Here he lived in a very modest manner, keeping 
neither carriage nor horse, and borrowing or hiring when he 
desired to be conveyed to the railroad station, four miles off. 

Mr. Frederick E. Warren, an attorney of Cincinnati, Ohio, 
was a student at Hiram College from 1869 to 1875. During 
this time he became acquainted with General Garfield. Of his 
impressions and acquaintance he furnishes a vivacious narra- 
tive. He says: 

"General Garfield's return home was always an event with the college 
boys, by whom he was greatly admired and beloved. My earliest im- 
pressions of him, as he came one morning striding up the old plank walk 
that stretched across the college campus, realized all that I had heard 



//J 

LEADER AND STATESMAN.— REMINISCENCES. 247 "< 

spolcen of him as to his appearance and bearing. Even God had seemed 
to set liis seal upon him, 'to give the world assurance of a man.' Sub- 
sequent acquaintance merely ripened this impression. None of us re- 
quired a formal introduction to him. The boys and he instinctively knew 
each other. He took the stranger cordially by the hand, gave him a 
kindly and encouraging word, and made him feel at once that he was 
his friend, and you may rest assured that the boy was forever his. 

"We learned much from the General's 'talks,' as he styled them. 
Whenever at home, he regularly attended the chapel exercises each 
morninc. As soon as the religious services Avere concluded, he invaria- 
bly was called upon to say something; to give us a 'talk.' He never 
failed to respond. His remarks were usually brief, but delightfully in- 
structive, and there was a freshness and novelty which characterized 
them that I have never met with in any other public speaker or teacher. 

" On one occasion, when going to chapel, he saw a horse-shoe lying at 
the side of the path, which he picked up, and carried along with him. 
After prayer, when asked, as usual, to say something to us (I must sor- 
rowfully confess that a majority of the boys were impatient of praj^ers 
when the General was about), he produced the horse-shoe, and proceeded 
to explain its history and use from the remotest period, in so entertain- 
ing a manner that I am sure that no one who was present has ever for- 
gotten it. At another time he delivered a similar off-hand lecture upon 
the hammer, suggested l)y one he had found somewhere about the college 
premises. In all he said to the students he was eminently practical, and 
it seemed to us that he could convey more information in fifteen minutes' 
talk than the combined fiiculty could have done in an hour. 

"The general effect of these frequent brief discourses can readily be 
imagined. The more thoughtful vacated the playground, and gathered 
in groups about the boarding places, to discuss some question of interest 
suggested by the General, or retired to their rooms for reading and 
reflection upon the subject, inspired with a renewed love of knowledge, 
and desire for improvement. 

"His application to business and study was extraordinary. It ap- 
peared to make no difference at what hour of the day or night one called 
upon him, he would be found in his library at work. If there was a 
'night owl' joar cvcellence in Hiram College from the winter of 1869 until 
the winter of 1875, it was myself, yet however late tlie hour I retired 
might be, I had but to look three doors westward to see the light still burn- 



/ 248 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

ing in General Garfield's window, and he was nearly always up with the 
sun. It was often asked if he ever slept. 

"Apropos of this, I am able to recall a very agreeable incident, and 
one highly characteristic of the man. I was reading late one night 
Momssen's ' History of Rome,' and several times came across the word 
' synimachy,' which I failed to find in the English dictionary. Somewhat 
puzzled with its frequent recurrence, and seeing that the General was 
still up, 1 decided, although it was two o'clock in the morning, to call 
upon him for the meaning of the w^ord. I found him hard at work, and 
after excusing myself for the inteiTuption, explained the object of my 
unseasonable visit. He immediately replied: 'It is coined from the 
Greek, a frequent practice wnth Momssen ; ' and taking from a book-case 
a Greek lexicon, he quickly furnished me witli the information I was in 
quest of. He then insisted upon my sitting down, and for a couple of 
hours entertained me with an account of a recent trip to Europe. 

"Leaving this topic, he returned to Momssen, whom he pronounced 
eccentric and tedious, and indulged in a lengthy and learned co]nparison 
between him and Niebuhr. 

" 1 noticed upon his shelves a copy of Bryant's translation of Homer, 
He complained that the book-seller had sent him an imperfect copy, 
there being one hundred and ninety lines at the beginning of the first 
volume omitted through the carelessness of the binder. He repeated 
some of the omitted lines, and spoke of them in terms of high critical 
eulogy. It was quite daylight before he allowed me to depart. 

"The General was very peculiar in the discipline of his children. One 
evening an agent for a Babcock Fire Extinguisher was exhibiting the 
machine on a pile of lighted tarred boxes, on the public square, in the 
presence of a large crowd, c.mong them General Garfield and his little* 
son Jim, who is a chip off the old block, as the saying is. A gentleman 
accidentally stepped on the boy's foot. He did not yell, as most boys 
might have done under such a pressure, but savagely sprang at the gen- 
tleman and dealt him a blow with his fist somewhere in the region of the 
abdomen, about as high as he could reach. The fivther observed it, and 
immediately had the crowd open and ordered the fireman to turn the hose 
upon Jim, which was done, and the boy was extinguished in less than a 
minute. 

" When he was in Washington, and we wanted — as frequently happened 
— any public documents or any facts to aid us in our society debates, 



// 

y 

LEADER AND STATESMAN.— LITERARY HABITS. 249 X 

which were not accessible from any other source, all we had to do was to 
write to the General for them, and it was flattering to us how promptly 
he complied with these requests. 

"While apparently of the most amiable temper, he taught us the duty 
of self-defense, and the right to resist aggression. He was not by any 
means a non-combatant, and when aroused must have borne some resem- 
blance to an enraged lion. I understand he entered the war as a soldier 
with extraordinary zeal, and the country knows with what gallantry he 
fought its battles. He was naturally a belligerent, but discipline, the 
habitual practice of self-command, and a strong religious sense, enabled 
him to keep this warlike disposition under perfect control. He was an 
excellent boxer and fencer, a good shot with both rifle and pistol, and 
took a lively interest in all manly exercises. He was a skillful croquet 
player, and enlivened the game with constant conversation, which made 
it a most agreeable pastime to the other playei-s and lookers on." 

Can biography anywhere present a more simple, manly nat- 
ure? Is there a better sign of it than to be beloved by col- 
lege boys? 

In Washington, up to 1869, he boarded a part of the time, 
and lived in a rented house for the remainder. In that year 
he built the comfortable residence on the corner of Thirteenth 
and I Streets, opposite Franklin Square, which he continued to 
occupy till his election to the Presidency. The whole house 
overflowed with books, but the lijbrary was the most charac- 
teristic room. General Garfield's reading was in special fields 
of investigation. At one time he explored and studied the 
entire subject of Goethe and his contemporaries and critics. 
Horace was also the subject of enormous study. Of all that h 
read he made elaborate notes. He made a whole library of 
scrap books, all perfectly indexed. The habit was begun on 
his first entrance into public life. These w^ere supplemented 
by prodigious diaries. Probably no man ever left such a 
complete record of his intellectual life upon paper. In addi- 
tion to all this, he kept a series of labeled drawers, in which 
were filed away newspaper cuttings, items, pamphlets, and 
documents. This collection was most carefully classified and 



250 LIFE OF JAMES A. <JARFIELD. 

indexed by subjects. It is easy to see why Garfield was known 
as the best i^osted and readiest man in Congress. His mar- 
velous memory and splendid system enabled him, on short 
notice, to open the drawer containing all the material on al- 
most any subject, and equip himself in an hour for battle. No 
encyclopedia could compare in value with this collection to 
its owner. It made Garfield absolutely terrible in debate. A 
charo-e would be made, a lustorical reference indicated by 
some poorly-posted antagonist; at the next session Garfield 
was on hand with the documents to overwhelm his opponent. 
Amono- the many literary and other miscellaneous addresses 
delivered during this period, was one of i^ovember 25, 1870, 
before the Army of the Cumberland, on the "Life and Char- 
acter of George II. Thomas," and one on "The Future of 
the Kepublic," delivered July 2d, 1873, before the students 
of Hudson College. From the former we give extracts, 
although to give any thing less than the entire address is 
spoliation. As an argument defending Thomas from Robert 
E. Lee's charge of disloyalty, it is overwhelming. Garfield 
loved Thomas as a brother; and with the dead hero for a 
theme, the orator rose to the loftiest heights. Among his 
opening remarks were the following: 

"There are now living not less than two hundred thousand men who 
served under the eye of General Thomas; who saw him in sunshine and 
gtorm— on the march, in the fight, and on the field when the victory had 
been won. Enshrined in the hearts of all these, are enduring images and 
most precious memories of their commander and friend. Who shall col- 
lect and unite into one worthy picture, the bold outlines, the innumerable 
lights and shadows which make up the life and character of our great 
leader? Who shall condense into a single hour the record of a life which 
forms so large a chapter of the ^N^ation's history, and whose fome fills and 
overfills a hemisphere ? No line can be omitted, no false stroke made, no 
imperfect sketching done, which you, his soldiers, will not instantly de- 
tect and deplore. I know that each of you here present sees him in 
memory at this moment, as we often saw him in life ; erect and strong, 
like a tower of solid masonry; his broad, square shoulders and massive 
head; his .abundant hair and full beard of light brown, sprinkled with 



LEADER AND STATESMAN.— TEIBUTE TO THOMAS. 251 ' 

silver; his brt)aJ forehead, full face, and features that would appear 
colosf^al, but for their })erfect harmony of proportion; his clear com- 
plexion, with just enough color to assure you of robust health and a well- 
regulated life ; his face lighted up by an eye which was cold gray to his 
enemies, but warm, deep blue to his fi-iends; not a man of iron, but of 
live oak. His attitude, form, and features, all assured you of inflexible 
firmness, of inexpugnable strength ; while his welcoming smile set every 
feature aglow with a kindness that won your manliest affection. If thus 
in memory you see his form and features, even more vividly do you re- 
member the qualities of his mind and heart. His body was the fitting 
type of his intellect and chai'acter ; and you saw both bis intellect and 
character tried, again and again, in the fiery furnace of war, and by other 
tests not less searching. Thus, comrades, you see him ; and your mem- 
ories supply a thousand details which complete and adorn the picture." 

In closing" what might be called more particularly the bio- 
graphical portion of the address he said: 

"Thomas's life is a notable illustration of the virtue and power of hard 
work; and in the last analysis the power to do hard work is only another 
name for talent. Professor Church, one of his instructors at West Point, 
says of his student life, that ' he never allowed any thing to escape a 
thorough examination, and left nothing behind that he did not fully com- 
prehend.' And so it was in the army. To him a battle was neither aij 
earthquake nor a volcano, nor a chaos of brave men and frantic horses, 
involved in vast explosions of gunpowder. It was rather a calm, rational 
concentration of force against force. It was a question of lines and posi- 
tioi^s ; ol^ weight of metal and strength of battalions. He knew^ that the 
elements and forces which bring victory are not created on the battle- 
field, but nuist be patiently elaborated in the quiet of the camp, by the 
perfect organization and outfit of his army. His remark to a captain of 
artillery, while inspecting a battery, is worth remembering, for it exhibits 
his theory of success: 'Keep every thing in order, for the fate of a battle 
may turn on a buckle or a linch-pin.' He understood so thoroughly the 
condition of his army, and its equipment, that when the hour of trial 
came, he knew how great a pressure it could stand, and how hard a blow 
it could strike. 

"His character was as grand and as simple as a colopsal pillar of chis- 
eled granite. Every step of his career :is a soldier was marked by the 
most loyal and unhesitating obeditence to law— to the laws of his govern- 



^ 252 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

ment and to the commands of his superiors. The obedience which he 
rendered to those above him he rigidly required of those under his 
command. 

"His influence over his troops grew steadily and constantly. He won 
his ascendancy over them, neither by artifice nor by any one act of 
special daring, but he gradually filled them with his own spirit, until 
their confidence in him knew no bounds. His power as a commander 
was developed slowly and silently; not like volcanic land lifted from the 
sea by sudden and violent upheaval, but rather like a coral island, where 
each increment is a growth — an act of life and work. 

"Power exhibits itself under two distinct forms — strength and force — 
each possessing peculiar qualities, and each perfect in its own sphere. 
Strength is typified by the oak, the rock, the mountain. Force em- 
bodies itself in the cataract, the tempest, the thunderbolt. The great 
tragic poet of Greece, in describing the punishment of Prometheus for 
rebellion against Jupiter, represented Vulcan descending from heaven, 
attended by two mighty spirits, Strength and Foi'ce, by whose aid he 
held and bound Prometheus to the rock. 

"In subduing our great rebellion, the Republic called to its aid men 
who represented many forms of great excellence and power. A very 
few of our commanders possessed more force than Thomas — more genius 
for planning and executing bold and daring enterprises; but, in my judg- 
ment, no other was so complete in embodiment and incarnation of 
strength — the strength that resists, maintains, and endures. His power 
was not that of the cataract which leaps in fury down the chasm, but 
rather that of the river, broad and deep, whose current is steady, silent, 
and irresistible." 

From the peroration the following is taken: 

"The laftguage applied to the Iron Duke, by the historian of the 
Peninsular War, miglit also be mistaken for a description of Thomas. 
Napier says: 

"'He held his ai-my in hand, keeping it, with unmitigated labor, 

alwavs in a fit state to march or to fight Sometimes he was 

indebted to fortune, sometimes to his natural genius, always to his un- 
tiring industry; for he was emphatically a painstaking man.' 

"The language of Lord Brougham, addressed to Wellington, is a fit- 
ting description of Thomas: 

" 'Mighty captain! who never advanced except to cover his arms with 



LEADER AND STATESMAN.— TRIBUTE TO THOMAS. 253 

glory; mightier captain! Avho never reti-eated except to eclipse the glory 
of his advance.' 

''If I remember correctly, no enemy -was ever able to fight Thomas' 
out of any position he undertook to hold. 

" On the whole, I can not doubt that the most fitting parallel to Gen- 
eral Thomas is found in our greatest American, the man who was ' first 
in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.' The 
personal resemblance of General Thomas to Washington was often the 
subject of remark. Even at West Point, Rosecrans was accustomed to 
call him General Washington. He resembled Washington in the gravity 
and dignity of his character ; in the solidity of his judgment ; in the 
careful accuracy of all his transactions ; in his incorruptible integrity, 
and in his extreme, but unaffected, modesty. . . 

" But his career is ended. Struck dead at his post of duty, a be- 
reaved nation bore his honored dust across the continent and laid it to 
rest on the banks of the Hudson, amidst the tears and grief of millions. 
The nation stood at his grave as a mourner. Ko one knew until he was 
dead how strong w'as his hold on the hearts of the American people. 
Every citizen felt that a pillar of state had fallen; that a great and 
true and pure man had passed from earth. 

"There are no fitting words in which I may speak of the loss which 
every member of this society has sustained in his death. 

"The general of the army has beautifully said, in his order announc- 
ing the death of Thomas: 

"'Though he leaves no child to bear his name, the Old Army of the 
Oumberland, numbered by tens of thousands, called him father, and will 
"weep for him in tears of manly grief.' 

"To us, his comrades, he has left the rich legacy of his friendship. 
To his country and to mankind, he has left his character and his fame 
as a priceless and everlasting possession. 

'"O iron nerve to true occapion true! 
O fallen at length that tower of strength 
Which stood four-square to all t^e winds that blew!' 

'His work is done; 

But while the races of mankind endure, 

Let his great example stand 

Colossal seen of every land, 

And keep the soldier firm, the statesman pure, 

Till in all lands and through all human story, 

The path of Duty be the way to Glory.'" 



/. 254 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE NOONTIDE. 

JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD was an honest man. You 
could not have known him and thought otherwise ; you can 
not know the story of his life, and think him ever guilty of a 
dishonest act. His character is as clear as crystal; the sun- 
light of truth illumined his soul alway, and there the shadows 
of insincerity never fell. 

Nevertheless, General Garfield could not wholly escape the soil- 
ing slime of the mud slingers. Charges were made against him 
which, if true, would have made our Hyperion a most degraded 
and filthy Satyr. 

The time has come wdien Garfield's character needs no defense. 
To-day the wdiole world believes in him. AVhen the hurricane 
came he boldly and successfully vindicated himself. Then the 
people ratified his arguments and his declarations by their suf- 
frages. Finally, History has set lier great seal upon the judg- 
ment in his favor. 

The three principal accusations made against Mr. Garfield w-ere 
in their day known respectively as the Credit Mobilier Steal, the 
Salary Grab, and the De Golly er Bribery. A formidable array! 

There w-as a time when the biographer of Garfield would have 
been forced to devote a volume to these charges in order to refute; 
them. But now a few pages will be sufficient ; and their chief 
purpose, indeed, must only be to show how Garfield himself treated 
them. 

The charges all came upon him at once. When elected to Con- 
gress in 1872, for the sixth time, Garfield seemed to have a life 
estate in his office. Before the next election came, it looked as 
if he could never be elected again. 



THE NOONTIDE.— THE CREDIT MOBILIEK. 255 X, 

In the winter of 1872-3, came the Credit Mobilier exposure; 
early in '73, followed the Salary Grab; and finally, in 1874, the 
Do Gollyer scandal appeared. 

These troubles were met in the only way that could have suc- 
ceeded, and also in the only way possible to Garfield's nature^ 
openly and manfully. Writing to his friend Hinsdale, he said : 
" The district is lost, and as soon as I can close up affairs here I 
am coming home to capture it." 

While at Washington, in 1873, he prepared two exhaustive 
pamphlets — one entitled " Review of the Transactions of the 
Credit Mobilier Company," and the other " The Increase of 
Salaries." These papers, and the general discussions which were 
going on at the same time, threw much light on the subjects. 
But the opportunity was too good for politicians to lose, and it 
was only after a desperate struggle that Mr. Garfield was renom- 
inated and reelected in 1874. 

But the victory was gained, and from that time on the Reserve 
never ceased to grow stronger, year by year, in faith in General 
Garfield. 

Instead of a reproduction of the extensive literature on these 
subjects, M'hich political necessities alone occasioned, it will suf- 
fice here to quote from a speech which in brief covered the whole 
field. This address was made to his constituents, at Warren, O., 
on September 19, 1874. September 19 — anniversary of Chicka- 
mauga, and of the day of his death ! 

The reply proper began thus: 

"There are three things which I propose to discuss; two of them may 
hardly be said to refer to my public career, one of them directly to my 
ofiicial work. The first one I refer to is my alleged connection with 

TilE CREDIT MOBILIER. 

"There is a large number of people in the United States who use these 
Words without any adequate idea of what they mean. I have no doubt 
that a great many people feel about it very much as the fishwoman at Bil- 
lingsgate market felt when Sidney Smith, the great humorist of England, 
came along and began to talk with her. She answered back in a very 



4 256 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

saucy way, and lie finally commenced to call her matliematical names ; 
he called her a parallelogram, a hypothenuse, a parallelopipedoii, and 
other such terms, and she stood back aghast and said she never heard 
such a nasty talking man in her life — never was abused so before. Now 
people think they have said an enormous thing when they say that 
somebody had somethmg to do with the Credit Mobilier. I ask your 
attention just 'for a few moments to what that thing is, and in the 
next place to understand precisely what it is that I am supposed to have 
had to do with it. 

" The Credit Mobilier was a corporation chartered in 1859 by the State 
of Pennsylvania, and authorized to build houses, buy lands, loan money, 
etc. Nothing of consequence was done with that company until the year 
1867, when a number of men bought up whatever stock there was in it, 
and commenced to do a very large business. In the winter of 1867, Mr. 
Train came to me and showed me a list of names and subscribers to the 
stock of the Credit Mobilier Company, and asked me to subscribe $1,000. 
I should say there were fifteen or twenty members of Congress (m the 
list, and many more prominent business men. He said that the com- 
pany was gofing to buy lands along the lines of the Pacific Railroad at 
places where they thought cities and villages would grow up, and to de- 
velop them, and he had no doubt that the growth of the country would 
make that investment double itself in a very short time. 

"That w-as the alleged scheme that the Credit Mobilier Compnny had 
undertaken — a thing that if there is any gentleman in Warren who would 
feel any hesitancy in buying, it would be because he didn't believe in the 
growth of the country where the business was to be done. That stock 
was offered to me as a plain business proposition, with no intimation what- 
ever that it Avas offered because the subscribers were members of Con- 
gress, for it was offered to many other people, and no better men lived 
than at least a large number of the gentlemen to whom it was offered. 
Some of them took it at once. Some men are cautious about making an 
investment ; others are quick to determine. To none of tho.>e men was 
any explanation made that this Credit Mobilier Company was in any way 
connected with a ring of seven men who owned the principal portion of 
the stock and who had contracted with the directors of the Union Pa- 
cific road for building six or seven hundred miles at an extravagant price, 
largely above what the work was w^orth. That was a secret held only by 
those seven men who owned the principal portion of the stock. It is 



THE NOONTIDE.— THE CREDIT MOBILIER. 257 /< 

now understood that Mr. Oakes Ames, -who was the center of the com- 
pany of seven men, sought to gain the friendship of fifteen or twenty 
prominent Congressmen with the view of protecting himself and the Pa- 
cific Railroad against any investigations which might be made ; but it 
was a necessary part of his plan not to divulge that purpose or in any 
way to intimate to them that he might draw upon them for favors. 

" Long before any such purpose was realized, long before any pressure 
came upon Mr. Ames, most of the men who had been invited to purchase 
that stock had either declined to purchase or had purchased and realized, 
or had purchased and sold out. But in 1872, in the midst of the Pres- 
idential campaign, an article was published in the public journals charg- 
ing that sixteen prominent members of Congress — Senators and Repre- 
sentatives — had sold their votes for money or stock; that they had 
accepted bribes. You remember that I was running for Congress in this 
district at that time. When that news came I was away in the Rocky 
Mountains. I came home, and the first day after my arrival at Wash- 
ington I authorized to be published a statement concerning what I knew 
about the Oakes Ames business. A great many people suppose now and 
say — and it has been repeated a hundred times in this district, and 
especially in this town during the last two weeks — that IMr. Garfield hedged 
and denied any knowledge of the Credit Mobil ier business, until finally 
the investigation brought it out. I repeat that immediately on my ar- 
rival in Washington I made a statement to the correspondent of the Cin- 
cinnati Gazette, of which the following is a copy ; 

" 'Washington, September 15, 1872. 
" 'General Garfield, who has just arrived here from the Indian country, 
has to-day the first opportunity of seeing the charges connecting his 
name with receiving shares of the Credit Mobilier from Oakes xVmes. 
He authorizes the statement that he never subscribed for a single sliare 
of the stock, and that he never received or saw a share of it. When the 
company was first formed, George Francis Train, then active in it, 
came to Washington and exhibited a list of subscribers, of leading capi- 
talists and some members of Congress, to the stock of the company. The 
subscription was described as a popular one of $1,000 cash. Train urged 
General Garfield to subscribe on two occasions, and each time he declined. 
Subsequently he was again informed that the list was nearly coinjilcted, 
but that a chance remained for him to subscribe, when he again declined, 
17 



258 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

and to this day he has not subscribed for or received any share of stock 
or bond of the company.' 

" Now I want my audience to understand that in the midst of that 
storm and tempest of accusation, and only a little while before the elec- 
tion, I started it and let it go broadcast to the daily press, that I did 
know something about the Credit Mobilier ; that I had on two occasions 
discussed the matter ; that I had taken it into consideration, and that 
finally I had declined to subscribe; that I never had owned or held a 
share ; had never seen a certificate of the stock. Now, I am not asking 
you at this moment, to discuss the truth of that statement, but only to say 
that I stated it long before there was any investigation talked of; that I 
never dodged or evaded or denied having knowledge on the subject, but 
at the first declared plainly and finally what I did know about it. 

" When Congress met. Speaker Blaine and the rest of us whose names 
were concerned in it, at once, on the first morning of the session, de- 
manded a committee of investigation to go through with the whole sub- 
ject from beginning to end. I want those gentlemen who talk about 
Mr. Garfield being got after by committees of investigation to know that 
no investigation into any public aftlvir has been held in the last three 
years in Washington that I have not helped to organize and bring about. 
[Applause.] 

THE COMMITTEE OF IXVTSTIGATION. 

" Now what was the investigation ? You will remember that before 
the investigation had gone far a feeling of alarm and excitement swept 
over the whole country that has hardly been paralleled in American his- 
tory. Some men whose names were connected with the charges of the 
Credit Mobilier matter, shocked at the terrible charge of bribery thrown 
at them, in the hurry of the moment so far forgot themselves as to give 
equivocal answers as to whether they knew any thing about the matter 
or not, and the impression was made throughout the country that most of 
them had denied that they knew any thing about it. The fact was that 
the country was settling down to the belief that the whole thing was a 
mere campaign slander, and had no foundation in fact. Looking at the 
subject from this distance, I am inclined to believe that the impression 
left upon the American mind is that the faults of those who were charged 
with buying stock was not that they did any thing wrong in reference to 
the stock, but that afterwards they prevaricated, or lied about it. Now, 



THE NOONTIDE.— THE CEEDIT MOBILIER. 259 

without discussing any body else, I call you to witness that I stated at 
ouce what I knew about it the first time that I knew the thing was going 
the rounds of the newspapers. When the committee of investigation 
came to make up 

THEIR REPORT 

there was one thing in that report to which I personally took exception, 
and only one. I understand that a gentleman occupied this room a few 
nio-hts ago who undertook to make the impression upon his audience that 
^Ir. Garfield was found guilty of some improper relation with the Credit 
Mobilier. Let me read you a sentence or two fiom that report. The 
committee say: 

" Concerning the members to "whom he had sold or offered to sell 
the stock, the committee say that they ' do not find that Mr. Ames, in 
his negotiations with the persons above named, entered into any detail 
of the relations between the Credit ^Mobilier Company and the Union 
Pacific Company, or gave them any specific information as to the amount 
of dividends they would be likely to receive further than has been al- 
ready stated, viz., that in some cases he had guaranteed a profit of ten 
per cent They do not find as to the members of the pres- 
ent House above named, that they were aware of the object of Mr. Ames, 
or that they had any other purpose in taking this stock than to make a 
profitable investment. . . . They have not l->een able to find that any 
of these members of Congress have been aflected in their ofllcial action 
in consequence of interest iu the Credit Mobilier stock. . . . They do 
not find that either of the above-named gentlemen, m contracting with 
Mr. Ames, had any corrupt motive or purpose himself, or was aware 
that Mr. Ames had any. Xor did either of them suppose he was guilty 
of any impropriety or even indelicacy in becoming a purchaser of this 
stock.' And, finally, ' that the committee find nothing in the conduct or 
motives of either of these memljers in taking this stock, that calls lor 
any recommendation by the committee of the House.' (See pp. viii, ix, x.) 

"In Mr. Ames's first testimony he names sixteen members of Ccn- 
gress to whom he oflTered the stock, and says that eleven of them bought 
it, but he sets Mr. Gai-field down among the five who did not buy it. 

" He says : 'He (Garfield) did not pay for it or receive it. . . He 
never paid any money on that stock or received money on account of 
it.' Let me add that the last grant to the Union Pacific Kailroad was 



260 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

by the act of July, 1864, and that Oakes Ames had nothing to do with 
the Credit Mobilier till more than two years after that date. 

"The point to which I took exception to the report of the committee 
was this: the report held that Mr. Ames and Mr. Garfield did agree 
upon the purchase of the stock, and that Mr. Garfield received three hun- 
dred and twenty-nine dollars on account of it. I insisted that the evi- 
dence did not warrant that conclusion, and rose in my place in the House, 
and announced that I should make that statement good before the Amer- 
ican public; that I held myself responsible to demonstrate that the 
committee was wrong; that although they charged me with no wrong, 
they still had made a mistake of fact, which was against the evidence 
and an injustice to me. Soon after, I published a pamphlet of twenty- 
eight pages, in which I carefully and thoroughly reviewed all the testi- 
mony relating to me. I have now stood before the American people, 
since the eighth day of May, 1873, announcing that the following pro- 
positions Avere proven concerning myself: that I had never agreed even to 
take the stock of Mr. Ames ; that I never subscribed for it, never did 
take it, never received any dividends from it, and was never in any way 
made a beneficiary by it. Seven thousand copies of that pamphlet have 
been distributed through the United States. Almost every newspaper 
in the United States has had a copy mailed to it. Every member of 
the Forty-Second Congress — Democrat and Republican — had a copy, and 
there is not known to me a man who, having read my review, has de- 
nied its conclusiveness of those propositions after having read them. I 
have seen no newspaper review of it that denies the conclusiveness of 
the propositions. It is for these reasons that a great public journal, the 
Kew York Evening Post, said a few days ago that on this point ' General 
Garfield's answer had been received by the American people as satisfac- 
tory.' [Applause.] If there is any gentleman in this audience, who de- 
sires to ask any question concerning the Credit Mobilier, I shall be glad 
to hear it. [No response.] If not, would it not be about as well to 
modify the talk on that subject hereafter? [Applause.] 

"Now the next thing I shall mention is a question purely of official 
conduct — and that is a subject which has grown threadbare in this com- 
munity, and yet I desire your attention to it for a few moments. I refer to 

THE INCEEASE OF OFFICIAL SALARIES, 

one year and a half ago. First, what are the accusations concerning me? 



/ 2( 



THE NOONTIDE.— THE SALARY GRAB. ' 261 

"There are several citizens in this town who have signed their names 
to statements in the newspapers during that discussion, declaring that INIr. 
Garliekl had committed a theft, a robbery; that, to use the plain Saxon 
word, he w^as a thief, — that any man who took;^, or voted for a retroactive 
increase of salary, was a thief. In one of these articles it was argued in 
this wise : ' If I hire a clerk in my bank on a certain salary, and he, 
having the key to my safe, takes out five hundred or five thousand dollars 
more than we agreed for, and puts it in his pocket, it is simply theft or 
robbery. He happened to have access to the funds, and he got hold of 
them ; so did Congress. You can't gloss it over,' says the writer. ' it is 
robbery.' 

"Now, fellow-citizens, I presume you will agree that you can wrong 
even the devil himself, and that it is not right or manly to lie, even about 
Satan. I take it for granted that we are far enough past the passion of 
that period to talk plainly and coolly about the increase of salaries. 

"Now, in the first place, I say to-night, Avhat I have said through all 
this tempest that for a Congress to increase its own pay and make it retro- 
active, is not theft, is not robbery, and you do injustice to the truth when 
you call it so. There is ground enough in which to denounce it without 
straining the truth. Now if Congress can not fix its own salary, who 
can? The Constitution of your country says, in unmistakable words, 
that 'Senators and Representatives shall receive a compensation, to be 
ascertained by law, and paid out of the National Treasury.' Nobody 
makes the law but Congress. It was a very delicate business in the be- 
ginning, for our fathers to make a law paying themselves money. They 
understood it so, and when they sent the Constitution out to the several 
States, the question was raised, whether it would not be better to put a 
curb upon Congress in reference to their own pay ; and in several of the 
State^^ggestions were sent in. When the First Congress met, James 
MadiaOn offered seventeen amendments to the Constitution ; and, finally, 
Coiigress voted to send twelve of the proposed amendments to the country: 
on^ of them was this: 'No law varying the compensation of the Senators 
^ Representiitives in Congress shall take effect until an election has intcr- 
'vened.' In other words, the First Congress proposed that an amendment 
should be made to the new Constitution, that no Congress could raise its own 
pay, and make it retroactive. That was sent to the States for their ratifica- 
tion. The States adopted ten of those amendments. Two, they rejected; 
and this was one of the two. They said it should not be in the Consti- 



262 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

tution. The reason given for its rejection, hj one of the wisest men of 
that time, was this. He said : ' If we adojjt it, this may happen ; one 
party will go into power in a new Congress, but, just before the old Con- 
gress expires, the defeated party may pass a law reducing the pay of 
Congressmen to ten cents a day.' 

"It will never do thus to put one Congress into the power of another, 
it would be an engine of wrong and injustice. For this reason, our 
fathers refused to put into the Constitution a clause that would prevent 
back pay. Now it will not do to say that a provision that has been de- 
liberately rejected from the Constitution, is virtually there, and it will 
not do to say that it is just to call it theft and robbery for Congress to 
do what it has plainly the constitutional right to do. I use the word 
right in its legal sense. 

"Now, take another step. I hold in my hand here, a record of all 
the changes of pay that have been made since this Government was 
founded, and in every case, — I am not arguing now' that it is right at 
all, I am only giving you a history of it — in every single instance when 
Congress has raised its pay, it has raised it to take effect from the first 
day of the session of the Congress. Six times Congress has increased 
its own pay, and every time it made the pay retroactive. I say again, 
I am not arguing tliat this was right and proper; I am only arguing 
that it was lawful and constitutional to do it. In 1856, the pay was raised, 
and was made retroactive, for a year and four months, and the member 
of Congress from this district threw the casting vote that made it a law. 
That act raised the pay by a larger per cent, than the act of last Congress. 
Joshua R. Giddings was the one-hv.ndredth man that voted aye. Nine- 
ty-nine voted no. Joshua R. Giddings's vote the other way would have 
turned the score against it. Tliat vote gave back pay for a year and four 
months. That vote gave Congress nine months' back pay for a time when 
members would not have been entitled to any thing whatever, because, 
under the old ]aw% they were paid only during the session. What did 
this district do ? Did it call him a thief and a robber ? A few weeks 
after that vote this district elected him to Congress for the tenth time. 
Have the ethics of the world changed since 1856? Would I be a thief 
and robber in 1873, if I had done what my predecessor did in 1856? 
In 1866, the pay was raised; that time it was put in the appropriation 
bill (a very important appropriation bill), a bill giving bounties to sol- 
diers. It passed through the Senate and came to the House ; there was 



THE NOONTIDE.— THE SALARY GRAB. 263 

a disagreement about it. Senator Sherman, of Ohio, had chai'ge of the 
bill in the Senate, and voted against the increase of pay every time when 
it came up on its own merits, but he was out-voted. Finally it went to 
a committee of conference, and he was made chairman of the committee 
of conference. The conference report between the two houses was made 
in favor of the bill. Mr. Sherman brought in the rejwrt, saying when 
he brought it in, that, he had been opposed to the increase of pay, but 
the Senate had oveiTuled him. He voted for the conference report, voted 
for the final passage of the bill. That bill gave back pay for a year and 
five months. Was John Sherman denounced as^a thief and robber for 
that? Was Benjamin F. Wade called a thief and robber? 

*' At that time I was not chairman of the committee, and had no other 
responsibility than that of an individual representative. I voted against 
the increase of salary then ; at all stages I voted against the conference 
report, but it passed through the House on final vote by just one major- 
ity. I don't remember that any body ever j)raised me, particulai'ly, for 
voting against that report, and I never heard any body blaming John 
Sherman for voting for it. 

*' Now, in 1873, the conditions were exactly the reverse. I was chair- 
man of the committee that had charge of the great appropriation bill. 
There was put upon that bill, against my earnest protest, a proposition 
to increase salaries. I take it there is no one here who will deny that 
I worked as earnestly as I could to prevent the putting of that increase 
upon the bill. I did not work against it because it was a theft or robbery 
to put it on there; I worked against it because I thought it was indecent, 
unbecoming, and in the highest degree unwise and injudicious to increase 
the salaries at that time. First, because they had been increased in 1866, 
and in proportion to other salaries, Congressmen were paid enough — paid 
more in proportion than most other officials were paid. Second, the glory 
of the Congress had been that it was bringing down the expenditures of 
the Government, from the highest level of war to the lowest level of 
peace; and that if we raised our own salaries, unless the rise had been 
made before, it would be the key-note on which the whole tune of extrav- 
agance would be sung. I believed, too, that it would seriously injure the 
Republican party, and on that score I thought we ought to resist it. I 
did all in my power to prevent that provision being added to the bill. 
I voted against it eighteen times. I spoke against it, but by a very large 
vote in the House, and a still larger vote in the Senate, the salary clause 



264 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

was put upon the bill. I was captain of the ship, and this objectionable 
freight had been put upon my deck. I had tried to kee}) it off. What 
should I do? Burn the ship? Sink her? Or, having washed my hands 
of the responsibility for that part of her cargo I had tried to keep off, 
navigate her into port, and let those who had put this freight on be 
responsible for it ? Using that figure, that was the course I thought it 
my duty to adopt. IS^ow on that matter I might have made an error of 
judgment. I believed then and now that if it had been in my power to 
kill this bill, and had thus brought on an extra session, I believe to-day, 
I say, had I been able to do that, I should have been the worst blamed 
man in the United States. Why? During the long months of the 
extra session that would have followed, with the evils whicli the country 
would have felt by having its business disturbed by Congress, and the 
uncertainties of the result, men would have said all this has come about 
because we did not have a man at the head of the Committee on Appro- 
priations with nerve enough and force enough to carry his bill through 
by the end of the session. The next time we have a Congress, we had 
better see if we can not get a man who will get his bills through. Sup- 
pose I had answered there was that salary increase — ' That won't do. 
You had shown your hand on the salary question ; you had protested 
against it and you had done your duty.' Then they would have said, 
there were six or seven sections in that bill empowering the United States 
to bring the railroads before the courts, and make them account for their 
extravagance. They would have said we have lost all that by the loss 
of this bill, and I would have been charged with acting in the interest 
of raih'oad corjX)rations, and fighting to kill the bill for that reason. But 
be that as it may, fellow-citLzens, I considered the two alternatives as 
well as I could. I believed it would rouse a storm of indignation and ill 
feeling throughout the country if that increase of salary passed. I be- 
lieved it would result in greater evils if the whole failed, and an extra 
session came on. For a little while I was tempted to do what Avould 
rather be pleasing than what would be best in the long run. I believe 
it required more courage to vote as I voted, than it would to have voted 
the other way, but I resolved to do what seemed to me right in the case, 
let the consequences be what they would. [Applause.] I may have 
made a mistake in judgment ; I blame no one for thinking so, but I fol- 
lowed what I thought was the less bad of two courses. My subsequent 
conduct was consistent with my action on the bill. 



THE NOONTIDE.— THE SALARY GRAB. 265 

*' I did not myself parade the fact, but more than a year ago the New 
York World pubhshed a list, stating in chronological order the Senators 
and Representatives who covered their back pay into the Treasury. My 
name was first on the list, [i^pplause.] 

" I appeal to the sense of justice of this people, whether they will 
tolerate tliis sort of political warfare. It has been jiroven again and 
again that I never drew the back pay, never saw a dollar of it, and took 
no action in reference to it except to sign an order on the sergeant-at- 
arms to cover it into the general Treasury, and this was done before the 
convention at Warren. I say more. Some of these men who have been 
so long pursuing me, have known these facts for many months. During 
the stormy times of the salary excitement, a citizen of this county wrote 
a letter to a prominent official in the Treasury of the United States, 
wanting to know whether Mr. Garfield drew his pay or not, and received 
a very full and circumstantial reply stating the facts. That letter is in 
this town, I suppose, to-day, but those who have had possession of it have 
been careful never to show it. I have a copy of it here, and if these 
men continue lying about it, I will print it one of these days. [Sensation 
and great applause. Cries of ' Let us have that letter read now. Gen- 
eral Garfield.'] I will not give the name of the party. The name I 
have not to whom it is addressed. 

[The audience here absolutely insisted on having the letter read, 
some demanding the name, and all positively refusing to allow the 
speaker to proceed without reading the letter in justice to himself and 
for the information of the audience.] 

" ' Treasury Department, "Washington, June 9, 1873. 

" ' Dear Sir : Your letter written early in May was forwarded to me 
at Younsrstown, where it could not be answered for want of accurate 
data. ^Yhen about to return to Washington, I searched for the letter 
but couJd not find it. My recollection of its contents is that you inquired 
as to the repayment into the Treasury by General Garfield of the addi- 
tional compensation due him as a member of the Forty-Second Congress, 
under the provisions of the general appropriation act of ^farch 3, 1873. 

" ' Tlie additional compensation due General Garfield was drawn by 
Mr. Ordway, sergeant-at-arms of the House of Representatives, and by 
him paid into the Treasury as a miscellaneous revenue receipt. The 
monev was drawn by Mr. Ordway on the order of General Garfield. 
The pn\ctice of the sergeant-at-arms is to take receipts from members 



266 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

in blank in anticipation of the dates at which they are to become due, 
and to pay their check on him by drawing- the money from the Treasury 
on those receipts. In this way he is, in a measure, the banker of the 
members. General Garfield has signed such receipts month after month 
at the beginning of the month, one of which was filled up by Mr. Ord- 
way and presented to the Treasury. At that time, I believe. General 
Garfield Mas out of the city, but I happen to know that as early as the 
22d day of March this written order was delivered to Mr. Ordway, viz: 
if he had not drawn any money from the Treasury on his account to 
close the account without drawing it, and if he had drawn it to return 
it. Mr. Ord>vay then informed him that it was necessary for him to 
sign a special order on the Treasury if he wished it drawn out and cov- 
ered in, otherwise Mr. Garfield could draw it at any time within two 
years ; whereupon Mr. Garfield drew an order for 64,548, payable to the 
order of Mr. Ordway, to be by him covered into the Treasury. This 
was presented to the Treasurer and the money turned over from the 
appropriation account to the general account, so that no portion of it 
ever left the Treasury at all. It was simply a transfer from the appro- 
priation account to the general funds of the Treasury. 

" ' Very respectfully, 

" 'Egbert ^Y. Tayler.'" 

" [Applause.] 

"Question. — 'Wliat was the date of the adjourment of Congress? 

" General Garfield. — Congress adjourned on the 3d of March. 

"Question. — "What was the date of your letter? 

"General Garfield.— The 22d day of March was- the date of my letter. 

"A voice.— Give us some of the De Gollyer matter. 

"General Garfield.— We will take each particular thing at the proper 
time and place. A note is handed me of which I will speak in this con- 
nection. It is that during the debate I\Ir. Garfield answered a question 
of Mr. Hibbard, of New Hampshire, who said, 'How about this plunder? 
How much plunder will it take out of the Treasury ? ' And that ]\Ir. 
Garfield's answer seemed to imply that he did not regard it as plunder. 
I believe there has been as much said on that particular reply of mine 
in connection with this salary business as any thing else that has been 
said. Now I have already answered that in the general remarks I have 
made this evening, namely, when a Democrat from New Hampshire 
rose in his place and put a question to me, inquirmg how much money 



THE NOONTIDE.— De GOLLYER PAVEMENT. 267 

it would take out of the Treasury if tliis salary act passed, and put it in 
the form of sayiug how much 'plunder' it would take, I did not at first 
notice that he used the word ' plunder,' aud I answered it would take a 
million and a half dollars out of the Treasury. Then Mr. Dawes rose and 
said, 'Did my friend from Ohio notice the word 'plunder?' Does he 
acknowledge this to be 'plunder?' I then said, 'No, I don't acknowl- 
edge that this is plunder. If any gentleman thinks that he is taking 
more than is justly due him in his conscience, let him call it plunder if 
he pleases.' 

"Now, an attempt has been made to make it appear that Mr. Garfield 
approved the salary act because he answered this man that he didn't 
regard it as robbery. I answer now, I do not regard it as robbery, and 
never have. 

"Now, one word more before I leave this question. I am glad the 
American people rose up in indignation against that salary increase. 
There were some unkind and unjust things said by the people in their 
uprising, but they rose against it and rebuked it with a power and might 
that has been of very great service to the country during the last winter. 
It could not have been repealed but for the rebuke of the people, and I 
could not have led as I did lead in more than §20,000,000 reduction of 
public expenses, if I had not felt behind me the weight, and help, and 
reinforcement of the indignation of the people in regard to that salary 
increase. I say it was an indecent thing to do, to increase the salary 
thus, and it was a great conservative thing for the people to do to de- 
mand its repeal ; and it was repealed. But let us, in discussing it, deal 
with the subject according to the truth. I now pause to inquire if any 
gentleman in the audience has any questions to ask touching this salary, 
or any thing concerning it? If he has, I shall be very glad to hear 
it. [Tlie speaker here paused, but no questions being asked, he pro- 
ceeded as follows:] If not, I pass to the subject my friend over yonder 
seemed to be so anxious I should get to before I finished the last; and 
here I approach a que.^tion that in one sense is not a question at all, and 
in another sense it may be. I understand that several persons in the dis- 
trict are saying that Mr. Garfield has Uiken a fee for a so-called law 
opinion, but which, in fact, was something he ought not to have done 
which was in realitv a kind of fee for his official influence as a moinl)or 
of the Committee on Appropriations; or, to speak more plainly, that i 
accepted pay for a service as a kind of bribe, and that too, in 



268 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

THE SO-CALLED DE GOLLYER PAYE3LEXT. 

"Now, I have tried to state that in the broadest way, with the broad- 
est point forward. I ask the attention of this audience for a few mo- 
ments to the testimony. In the first place, I want the audience to under- 
stand that the city of Washington is governed, and has always been gov- 
erned so far as its own improvements are concerned, by its own laws and 
its own people, just as much as Warren has been governed by its own 
corporate laws and authority. I remember perfectly well what has been 
paraded in the papers so much of late that Congress has full power to 
legislate over the District of Columbia. Well, Congress has full juris- 
diction over what is now called the District of Columbia, and Congress 
could, I suppose, make all the jwlice regulations for the city of Washing- 
ton ; "but Congress always has allowed the city of Washington to Imve its 
city council, or a legislature, until the present time. We have abolished 
it, because we had a cumbrous machine. In the year 1871 a law was 
passed by Congress creating the board of public works, appointing a gov- 
ernor, and creating a legislature for the District of Columbia. That act 
stated what the board of public works could do and what the other 
branches of the District government could do ; and among other things, 
it empowered the legislature to levy taxes to make improvements on the 
streets. The legislature met. The board of public works laid before 
them an elaborate plan for improving the streets of Washington, a plan 
amounting to six million dollars in the first place, and the legislature 
adopted the plan and provided that one-third of the entire cost of canning 
out that plan should be raised by assessing the front foot on the property 
holders, and the other two-thirds should be paid by money to be bor- 
rowed by the city government; in other words, by the issuing of their 
bonds. The city government of Washington borrowe^l money and raised 
by special taxation enough to carry on a vast system of improvement. 
When they got ready to execute their plan one of the questions that 
came before them was, Wliat kind of pavement shall we put in? and in 
what way shall we go about the business of letting our paving contracts? 
In order to settle that question they wrote to all the principal cities and 
found out all the methods pursued by them, and finally appointed from 
leading officers of the army — General Humphreys, chief engineer ; Gen- 
eral Meigs, quartermaster-general ; the Surgeon-General, and General 
Babcock of the engineer corps ; and those four men sat as an advising 
board, having no power but merely to advise. They took up all kinds 



THE NOONTIDE.-DeGOLLYER PAVEMENT. 269 

of pavement ever made; specimeiis were sent in; they looked over the 
whole, and as a result recommended this : ' We recommend you, instead 
of letting this work be done by the lowest bidder, with all the schcniiug 
"straw-l)ids" that may come in, to fix a tariff of prices you will pay for 
different kinds of pavement, and we recommend as follows : If you put 
down concrete pavement you had better say you will pay so much per 
square yard for putting it down. We have looked the cities all over 
and find that it is the proper amount to pay ; but for stone so much ; 
for gravel so much; for asphaltum so much; and for wood so much.' 
Kow, that board of public works adopted the plan and that schedule of 
prices, and having elected if they put those various kinds of pavements 
down, they would put them down at those rates, they then said to all com- 
ers 'bring in your various kinds of pavements and show us their merits, 
and when we have examined them we will act.' 

•'Then the various paving companies and patentees all over the coun- 
trv who had what they called good pavements, presented themselves; 
but in almost all cases by their attorneys. They sent men there to rep- 
resent the relative merits of the pavements. A pavement company in 
Chicago employed Mr. Parsons, of Cleveland, as early as the month of 
April, 1872, to go before the board of puljlic works and present the mer- 
its of their pavements. Mr. Parsons had nothing whatever to do with 
the question of prices ; they had already been settled in advance by the 
board. Mr. Parsons was marshal of the Supreme Court at that time, 
and was just about running for Congress. He asked the Chief Justice of 
the United States whether there was any impropriety in his taking that 
case up and arguing it, merely because he was an appointee and under 
his direction, and the Chief Justice responded : ' There was none in the 
world.' He proceeded with the case until the 8th day of June, when, 
for the first time, I heard any thing about it. This was two days before 
the adjournment of Congress. On that day Mr. Parsons came to me 
and said to me he had an important case ; he had worked a good while 
on it but was called away. He must leave. He did not want to lose 
bis fee in it — was likely to lose it unless the work was completed ; he 
must go at any rate. He asked me if I would argue the case for bim; 
if I would examine into the merits of this pavement and make a state- 
ment of it before the board. I said, ' I will do it if I, on examination, 
find the patent what it puri)orts to be — the best wood pavement i)atent 
there is, but I can't do it until after Congress adjourns.' Congress ad- 
journed two days later ; the papers of patents were sent to me, modeled 



270 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

Bpecimens, and documents showing where pavement had been used were 
forwarded to me. The investigation of the patents and the chemical 
analysis representing all the elements of the pavement was a laborious 
task and I worked at it as faithfully as any thing I ever worked at. I 
did it in open daylight. I have never been able to understand how^ any 
body has seen any thing in that on which to base an attack on me. I 
sav I am to-day intellectually incapable of understanding the track of a 
man's mind who sees in this any ground for attacking me. I made the 
aro-ument; there were two imteuts contained in that pavement itself; there 
were some forty different wood pavements proposed, and to carefully and 
analytically examine all the relative merits of those was no small work. 
Mr. Parsons was to get a fee providing he was successful, and not any if 
he was not successful, and hence the sum offered was large— a contingent 
fee, as every lawyer knows." 

This is enough to show Mr. Garfield's relation to the De Gollyer 
affair. After some further discussion of it this Warren speech 
closed as follows : 

" If no further questions are to be asked I will conclude with a few 
general reflections on the whole subject. 

"Nothing is more distasteful to me than to speak of my own work — 
but this disscussion has been made necessary by the persistent misrei^re- 
sentations of those who assail me 

" During my long public service the relation between the people of this 
district and myself has been one of mutual confidence and independence. 
I have tried to follow my own convictions of duty with little regard to 
personal consequences, relying upon the intelHgence and justice of the 
peo^^e for approval and support. I have sought to promote, not merely 
local and class interests, but the general good of the whole country, be- 
lieving that thereby I could honor the position I hold and the district I 
represent. On the other hand my constituents have given me the great 
support of their strong and intelligent approval. They have not always 
approved my judgment, nor the wisdom of my public acts. But they 
have sustained me because they knew I was earnestly following my con- 
victions of duty, and because they did not want a representative to be 
the mere echo of the public voice, but an intelligent and independent 
judge of public questions. 
*'In conclusion, I appeal to the best men of the district — to men who 



THE NOONTIDE.— CLOSING APPEAL. 271 

are every way worthy and every way capable to judge my conduct — nor 
do I hesitate to refer all inquiries to those noble men with whom I have 
acted during my public life. They have worked with me as representa- 
tives during all these years, and know tiie character and quality of my 
work. I have sought to make myself worthy of an honorable fame among 
them, and have not sought in vain. They have placed me in many po- 
sitions of large trust and responsibility, and in the present Congress I 
again hold the chairmanship of the committee of the second if not the 
first importance in the House of Representatives. I fearlessly appeal 
to the honorable members of the present Congress, and of all the Con- 
gresses in which I have served, to say if my conduct has not been high 
and worthy — the very reverse of what these home enemies represent it to 
be. [Applause."] All this time it has been a source of great strength 
and confidence to know that here in this district there has been a strong, 
manly, intelligent constituency willing to hold up my hands and enable 
me more. effectually to serve the country and. honor them by ni)' service. 
While this has been true, a bitter few have long been doing all in their 
power to dejjreciate my work and weaken my support. 

"Mr. Wilkins. — You are rising too fast; they are afraid of being 
eclipsed. 

"Mr. Garfield. — ^In all this I have relied upon the good sense and 
justice of the people to understand both my motives and the motives and 
efforts of my enemies. On some questions of public policy there have 
been differences between some of my constituents and myself. For in- 
stance, on the currency question, I have followed what seemed to me to 
be the line of truth and duty, and in that course I believe that the ma- 
jority of the people of this district now concur. Whether right or wrong 
in opinions of this sort, I have believed it to be my duty to act independ- 
ently, and in accordance with the best light I could find. 

Fellow-citizens, I believe I have done my country and you some serv- 
ice, and the only way I can still continue thus to serve you is by enjoy- 
ing, in a reasonable degree, your confidence and support. I am very 
grateful for the expression of confidence which you have again given me 
by choosing me a seventh time as your candidate. It was an expression 
which I have reason to believe was the result of your deliberate judg- 
ment, based on a full knowledge of my record ; and it is all the more 
precious to me because it came after one of those storms of public feel- 
ing which sometimes sweeps away the work of a life-time." 



272 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

Aside from what has been here recounted^ Garfiekl did not speak 
much on these unjjleasant topics. Having put himself on record, 
he did not convict himself by protesting overmuch. 

That he felt these things deeply one can not doubt. In a letter 
of January 4, 1875, written to B. A. Hinsdale, he said: 

" With me the year 1874 has been a continuation, and in some respects 
an exaggeration, of 1873. That year brought me unusual trials, and 
brought me face to face "with personal assaults and the trial that comes 
from calumny and public displeasure. This year has perhaps seen the 
culmination, if not the end, of that kind of experience. I have had 
much discipline of mind and heart in living the life which these trials 
brought me. Lately I have been studying myself with some anxiety to 
see how deeply the shadows have settled around my spirit. I find I 
have lost much of that exuberance of feeling, that cheerful spirit which 
I think abounded in me before. I am a little graver and less genial than 
I was before the storm struck me. The consciousness of this came to me 
slowly, but I have at last given in to it, aud am trying to counteract the 
tendency." 

These efforts were successful ; for prosperity and popularity re- 
turned to him; and even if they had not. General Garfield was 
not the man to acquire bitterness of spirit. 

In fact, if there was one thing wherein Garfield was greater than 
any man in the illustrious group, whose names form a matchless 
diadem for the epoch in which he lived, it Avas in a sweetness of 
temper, a loftiness of spirit, the equal of which can hardly be 
found in secular history. His spirit knew no malice ; his heart no 
revenge. A distinguished man who served Avith him in Congress, 
but who was not a great friend, told the Avriter that in this re- 
gard Garfield inspired him Avith aAve. His conservatiA^e a^cws 
made him many party enemies. Time after time these brilliant 
debaters — Farnsworth and the rest — Avould attack Garfield. No 
sarcasm Avas too cutting, no irony too cold. At times the speaker 
seemed to leave the quiA^er of ridicule without an arroAv. When 
Garfield rose to reply, it Avas in a tone of calm discussion. He 
would proceed to the subject in hand in the friendliest and most 
earnest manner. No attack could proA'oke him to reply to per- 



THE NOONTIDE.— IN THE MINORITY. 273 

sonalities or invective. N-ever did he lose self-poise for a moment. 
It was said that a stranger entering the House after Garfield had 
begun his speech in answer to some most galling attack would 
never suspect that the speech was a reply to hostile and malignant 
assault. 

The elections of 1874 having resulted favorably to the Demo- 
cratic party, the Republicans found themselves with only a minority 
in the House in the Forty-Fourth Congress. Blaine lost his position 
as Speaker, and ]\Iichaol C. Kerr, of Indiana, presided. Committees 
were all reorganized ^^ ith Democratic chairmen and majorities. 

Garfield, after having been four years Chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Appropriations, now found himself near the foot of the 
Committee of Ways and Means, with a weighty group of Demo- 
crats above him on the list. During his last four terms, Garfield 
was a member of the House Committee on Rules. His knowledge 
of Parliamentary Law amounted to a mastery of the subject. 

In consequence of this change, General Garfield, suddenly re- 
lieved of his usual large responsibility in the work of legislation, 
was turned into a comparatively new field of public life. Relieved 
of the real work of legislation, for the first time he had a good 
opportunity to observe how others would do that work. 

A very brief season of such observation on the part of Garfield 
and his fellow-partisans was enough to make them dissatisfied wdth 
Democratic statesmanship. The new majority began to destroy 
what Republicans had spent so many years in building up. Then 
came organized opposition. 

The first great collision occurred in January, 187G, This first 
Democratic House since the war was, very naturally, led by South- 
ern members. Many late rebel generals had been sent to it. It 
was pojmlarly named the Confederate Congress — the rule of rebel 
brigadiers. Of course, it Avas not long till they began to propose 
measures peculiarly favorable to themselves. 

AA^hen, at the close of the civil war, the Southern States were 

restored to their riglit places in the I^nion, many of their citizens, 

guilty of treason, had lost tlx'ir ])()litical ])rivileges. By act>'^ of 

legislation and presidential proclamations, most of these disal)ilities 
18 



274 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELP. 

luul boon removed. Eiwly m the Forty-Fourth Congress the Am- 
nesty Bill was proposed, extending pardon to all ox-Coufederates 
unconditionally. 

It had been the policy of the Government to restore the South 
completely in this respect, as fast as it was expedient to do so; but 
this was, as yet, too sweeping a measure. The Republican leaders 
^vere opposed to it; and Mr. Blaine proposed an amendment, except- 
ing JeHerson Davis absolutely and by name, and excepting seven 
hundred and titty others until they should renounce their treason by 
takinir the oath of alleiiiance to the United States. The friends 
of the bill would not except even Davis, and on this point there 
arose one of the most exciting debates ever held in Congress. 

The attack was first made by Mr. Blaine, in the course of a 
series of sharp thrusts between himself and Samuel J. Randall, of 
Pennsylvania, who had charge of the bill. Finally the " plumed 
knight " rushed to the front and dealt his heavy blows. It was 
a terrible arraignment of the Confederate President, making him 
responsible for the savage cruelties practiced on Union prisoners. 
All the horrors of Andersouville and Libby prisons were described. 
He read the celebrated order " Number Thirteen," directing rebel 
guns to be turned on the suffering thousands at Andersouville, on 
the approach of Sherman. Davis, he said, was a party to these 
proceedings, and the American people would not, should not 
sanction any act which made it possible for this man ever again to 
hold any honorable public position within the gift of his Southern 
friends. 

At\er Blaine's speech, the debate was continued by Mr. Cox. 
Then came Benjamin Hill, of Georgia, and James A. Garfield, of 
Ohio. Hill took up the charges of Blaine, parried them skillfully 
without answering them, made counter-charges against the Gov- 
ernment in its treatment of rebel prisoners, and, in fine, succeeded 
in his attempt to overcome the impression made by the Blaine attack. 
In this emergency, while the whole Democracy was exulting, and 
Kill was the hero of the hour, all eyes turned towards Garfield, 
for he promised a reply, and was known to be better able for that 
task than any other man. 



TJIE yfXjSTIlJB.—TIlE AMNESTY BILL. 275 

On the next day, January 12, Mr. Garfield was given the floor, 
and began. After .stating his regret that such an unpleasant dis- 
cussion had arisen, he made a brief review of the situation, and 
proceeded thus : 

" Let me say in the outset that, so far as I am personally concerned, I 
have never voted against any proposition to grant amnesty to any hu- 
man being who has asked for it at the bar of the House. Furthermore, 
I appeal to gentlemen on the other side who have been with me in this 
hall many years, whether at any time they have found me truculent in 
spirit, unkind in tone or feehng toward those who fought against us in 
the late war. Twelve' years ago this very month, standing in this place, 
I said this : ' I beheve a truce could be struck to-^lay between the rank 
and file of the hostile armies now in the field. I believe they could meet 
and shake hands together, joyful over returning peace, each respecting 
the courage and manhood of the other, and each better able to live in 
amity than before the war.' 

*'I am glad to repeat word for word what I said that day. For the 
purposes of thLs .speech I will not even claim the whole ground which 
the Government assume<l toward the late rebellion. For the sake of the 
present argument, I will view the position of those who took up arms 
against the Government in the light least offensive to them. 

" Lea\nng out of sight for the moment the question of slavery, which 
evoked so much passion, and which was the producing cause of the late 
war, there were still two opposing political theories which met in con- 
flict. Most of the Southern statesmen believed that their first obedi- 
ence was due to their State. We beheved that the allegiance of an 
American citizen was due to the National government, not by the way 
of a State capital, but in a direct line from his own heart to the govern- 
ment of the Union. Xow, that question was submitted to the dreadful 
arbitrament of war, to the court of last resort — a court from which there 
is no appeal, and to which all other powers must bow. To that dread 
court the great question was carried, and there the right of a State to 
secede was put to rest forever. For the sake of peace and union, I am 
willing to treat our late antagonists as I would treat litigants in other 
courts, who, when they have made their appeal and final judgment is 
rendered, pay the reasonable costs and bow to its mandates. Our ques- 
tion to-day is not that, but is closely connected with it. When we have 
made our argument and the court has rendered its judgment, it may be 



276 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

that in the course of its proceedings the court has used its discretion to 
disbar some of its counselors for malpractice, for unprofessional conduct. 
In such a case a motion may be made to restore the disbarred members. 
Applying this illustration to the jjresent case, there are seven hundred 
and fifty people who are yet disbarred before the highest authority of the 
Republic — the Constitution itself The proposition is to offer again the 
])rivileges of oflScial station to these people; and we are all agreed as to 
every human being of them save one. 

"I do not object to Jefferson Davis because he was a conspicuous 
leader. AVhatever we may believe theologically, I do not believe in the 
doctrine of vicarious atonement in politics. Jefferson Davis was no more 
guilty for taking uj^arms than any other man who went into the rebellion 
with equal intelligence. But this is the question: In the high court of 
war did he practice according to its well-known laws — the laws of nations? 
Did he, in appealing to war, obey the laws of war; or did he so violate 
those laws, that justice to those who suffered at his hands demands that 
he be not permi'tted to come back to his old privileges in the Union? 
That is the whole question; and it is as plain and fair a question for de- 
liberation as was ever debated in this House." 

From tliis point Mr. Garfield proceeded by a long argument, 
well supported by authorities, to show forth the real history 
of the atrocities mentioned, and to demonstrate the responsi- 
bility of Jeitcrson Davis for them. He ended this portion of 
the discussion in these words : 

"It seems to me incontrovertible that the records I have adduced lay 
at his door the charge of being himself the author, the conscious author, 
through his own appointed instrument, of the terrible work at Anderson- 
ville, for which the American people still hold him unfit to be admitted 
among the legislators of this Nation. 

^ ^ Jj> *^ *T^ ^ ^ 

"And now, Mr. Speaker, I close as I began. Toward those men who 
gallantly fought us on the field I cherish the kindest feeling. I feel a 
sincere reverence for the soldierly qualities they displayed on many a well- 
fought battle-field. I hope the day will come when their swords and ours 
will be crossed over many a doorway of our children, who will remember 
the glory of their ancestors with pride. The high qualities displayed in 
that conflict now belong to the whole Nation. Let them be consecrated 



THE NOONTIDE.— THE AMNESTY BILL. 277 

to the Union, and its future peace and glory. I shall hail that conse- 
cration as a pledge and symbol of our perpetuity. 

" But there was a class of men referred to in the speech of the gentle- 
man yesterday for whom I have never yet gained the Christian grace 
necessary to say the same thing. The gentleman said that, amid the 
thunder of battle, through its dim smoke, and above its roar, they heard 
a voice from this side saying, 'Brothers, come!' I do not know whether 
he meant the same thing, but I heard that voice behind us. I heard that 
voice, and I recollect that I sent one of those Avho uttered it through 
our lines — a voice owned by Yallandigham. General Scott said, in the 
early days of the war, 'When this war is over, it will require all the 
physical and moral power of the Government to restrain the rage and 
fury of the non-combatants.' It was that non-combatant voice behind us 
that cried ' Halloo ! ' to the other side ; that always gave cheer and en- 
couragement to the enemy in our hour of darkness. I have never for- 
gotten, and have not yet forgiven, those Democrats of the North whose 
hearts were not warmed by the grand inspirations of the Union, but who 
stood back, finding fault, always crying disaster, rejoicing at our defeat, 
never glorying in our victory. If these are the voices the gentleman 
heard, I am sorry he is now united with those who uttered them. 

" But to those most noble men, Democrats and Republicans, who to- 
gether fought for the Union, I commend all the lessons of charity that 
the wisest and most beneficent men have taught. 

"I join you all in every aspiration that you may express to stay in 
this Union, to' heal its wounds, to increase its glory, and to forget the 
evils and bitterness of the past ; but do not, for the sake of the three 
hundred thousand heroic men who, maimed and bruised, drag out their 
weary lives, many of them carrying in their hearts horrible memories of 
what they suffered in the prison-pen — do not ask us to vote to put back 
into power that man who was the canseof their suffering — that man still 
unaneled, unshriven, unforgiven, undefended." 

As the autumn of 1876 approached, it became evident that the 
Democratic party, already doniinai\t in the House, would make a 
desperate struggle at the November elections to get complete con- 
trol of the Government. 

Before the long session of that hot summer ended, Mr. Lamar, 
of Mississippi, took occasion to deliver in the House a powerful 



12 - 

^ 278 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

campaign speech, attempting to prove that the Republican party 
did not deserve further support from the people, and that the De- 
mocracy was eminently worthy to rule in their stead. The next 
day, August 4, Mr. Garfield replied. A part of this reply is here 
given : % 

"Mr. Chairman: I regret that the speech of the gentleman from 
Mississippi [Mr. Lamar] has not yet appeared in the Record, so that I 
might have had its full and authentic text before ottering my own re- 
marks in reply. But his propositions were so clearly and so very ably 
stated, the doctrines that run through it were so logically connected, it 
will be my own fault if I fail to understand and ajipreciate the general 
scope and purpose of his speech. 

" In the outset, I desire for myself and for a majority at least, of those 
for whom I speak, to express my gratitude to the gentleman for all that 
portion of his speech which had for its object the removal of the i)reju- 
dices and unkindly feelings that have arisen among citizens of the Re- 
public in consequence of the late war. Whatever faults the sjieech may 
have, its author expresses an earnest desire to make progress in the di- 
rection of a better understanding between the North and the South ; and 
in that it meets my most hearty concurrence and approval. 

" I will attempt to state briefly what I understand to be the logic of 
the gentleman's speech. 

:^ ^ H^ ^ >;; ;•< ;[; sji 

"Now I have stated — of course very briefly, but I hope with entire 
fairness — the scope of the very able speech to which we listened. In a 
word, it is this: The Republican party is oppressing the South; negro 
suffrage is a grievous evil ; there are serious corruptions in public affairs 
in the national legislation and administration; the civil service of the 
country especially needs great and radical reform ; and, therefore, the 
Democratic party ought to be placed in control of the Government at 
this time. , 

"It has not been my habit, and it is not my desire, to discuss mere 
party pohtics in this great legislative forum. And I shall do so now 
only in so far as a fair review of the gentleman's speech requires. My 
remarks shall be responsive to his; and I shall discuss pai*ty history and 
party policy only as the logic of his speech leads into that domain. 

"From most of the premises of the gentleman, as matters of fact and 
history, I dissent ; some of them are undoubtedly correct. But, for the 



THE NOONTIDE.— REPLY TO LAM AK. 279 ■ 

sake of argument only, admitting that all his premises ax-e correct, I deny 
that his conclusion is warranted by his premises; and, beibre I close, I 
shall attempt to show that the good he seeks can not be secured by the 
ascendency of the Democratic party at this time. 

"Before entering upon that field, however, I must notice this remark- 
able omission in the logic of his s|>eech. Although he did state that the 
country might consider itself free from some of the dangers which are 
apprehended as the result of Democratic ascendency, he did not, as I re- 
member, by any word attempt to prove the fitness of the Democracy as 
a political organization to accomplish the reforms which he so much de- 
sires ; and without that affii-mative proof of fitness his argument is neces- 
sarily an absolute failure. 

" It is precisely that fear which has not only made the ascendency of 
the Democratic party so long impossible, but has made it incompetent to 
render that service so necessary to good government— the service of main- 
taining the position of a wise and honorable opposition to the dominant 
party. Often the blunders and fiiultsof the Republican party have been 
condoned by the people because of the violent, reactionary, and disloyal 
spirit of the Democracy. 

" He tells us that it is one of the well-known lessons of political his- 
tory and philosophy, that the opposition party comes in to preserve and 
crystallize the measures which their antagonists inaugurated ; and that a 
conservative opposition party is better fitted to accomplish such a work 
than an aggressive radical party, who roughly pioneered the way and 
brought in the changes. And to apply this maxim to our own situation, 
he tells us that the diflTerences between the Republican and the Democratic 
parties upon the issues Avhich led to the war, and those which grew out of 
it, were rather differences of time than of substance; that the Democracy 
followed more slowly in the Republican path, but have at last arrived, by 
prudent and constitutional methods, at the same results ; and hence they 
will be sure to guard securely and cherish faithfully what the Republicans 
gained by reckless and turbulent methods. There is some truth in these 
'glittering generalities,' but, as applied to our present situation, they are 
entitled only to the consideration which we give to the bright but fiuitas- 
tic pictures of a Utopian dream. 

" I share all that gentleman's a.spirations for peace, for good govern men t 
at the South ; and I believe I can safely assure him that the great ma- 
jority of the nation shares the same aspirations. But he will allow me 



if- 280 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

to say that he has not fully stated the elements of the great problem to 
be solved by the statesmanship of to-day. The actual held is much broader 
than the view he has taken. And before we can agree that the remedy he 
proposes is an adequate one, we must take in the whole field, c(niiprehend 
all the conditions of the problem, and then see if his remedy is sufficient. 
The change he proposes is not like the ordinary change of a ministry in 
England when the government is defeated on a tax-bill or some routine 
measure of legislation. He proposes to turn over the custody and man- 
agement of the Government to a party which has persistently, and with 
the greatest bitterness, resisted all the great changes of the last fifteen 
years ; changes wliich were the necessary results of a vast revolution — a 
revolution in national policy, in social and political idea? — a revolution 
whose causes were not the work of a day nor a year, but of generations 
and centuries. The scope aud character of that mighty revolution must 
form the basis of our judgment when we inquire whether such a change 
as he proposes is safe and wise. 

" In discussing his proposition we must not forget that, as the result of 
this revolution, the South, after the great devastations of war, the great 
loss of life and treasure, the overthrow of its social and industrial system, 
was called upon to confi-ont the new and difficult problem of two races — 
one just relieved from centuries of slavery, and the other a cultivated, 
brave, proud, imperious race — to be brought together on terms of equality 
before the law. New, difficult, delicate, and dangerous questions bristle 
out from every point of that problem. 

"But that is not all of the situation. On the other hand, we see the 
North, after leaving its 350,000 dead upon the field of battle and bring- 
ing home its 500,000 maimed and wounded to be cared for, crippled in its 
industries, staggering under the tremendous burden of ]-)ublic and private 
debt, and both North and South weighted with unparalleled liurdens and 
losses — the whole nation suffering from that loosening of the bonds of 
social order which always follows a great war, and from the resulting cor- 
ruption both in the public and the private life of the people. These, 
Mr. Chairman, constitute the vast field which we must survey in order 
to find the path which will soonest lead our beloved country to the high- 
Avay of peace, of liberty and prosperity. Peace from the shock of battle ; 
the higher peace of our streets, of our homes, of our equal rights, we 
must make secure by making the conquering ideas of the war every-where 
dominant aud permanent. 



fza 

THE NOONTIDE.— REPLY TO LAMAR. 281 \ 

" Willi all my heart 1 join with the gentleman in rejoicing that — 

'" Tlu' w;ir-drnms throb no longer, and the battle-flags are furled ' — 

and I look forward with joy and hope to the day when our brave peo- 
ple, one in heart, one in their aspirations for freedom and peace, shall 
see that the darkness through which we have traveled was a part of that 
stern but beneficent discipline by which the Great Disposer of events 
has been leading us on to a higher and nobler national life. 

"But such a result can be reached only by comprehending the whole 
meaning of the revolution through which we have passed and are still 
passing. I say still passing; for I remember that after the battle of 
arms comes the battle of history. The cause that triumphs in the field 
does not always triumph in history. And those who carried the war 
for union and equal and universal freedom to a victorious issue can never 
safely relax their vigilance until the ideas for which they fought have 
become embodied in the enduring forms of individual and national life. 

" Has this been done? Not yet. 

" I ask the gentleman in all plainness of speech, and yet in all kind- 
ness, is he correct in his statement that the conquered party accept the 
results of the war? Even if they do, I remind the gentleman that accent 
is not a very strong word. I go further. I ask him if the Democratic 
party have adopted the results of the war? Is it not asking too much 
of human nature to expect such unparalleled changes to be not only ac- 
cepted, but, in so short a time, adopted by men of strong and independ- 
ent opinions? 

" The antagonisms which gave rise to the war and grew out of it were 
not born in a day, nor can they vanish in a night. 

"Mr. Chairman, great ideas travel slowly, and for a time noiselessly, 
as the gods, whose feet were shod with wool. Our war of independence 
was a war of ideas, of ideas evolved out of two bunded years of slow and 
silent growth. When, one hundred years ago, our fathers announced as 
self-evident truths the declaration that all men are created equal, and the 
only just power of governments is derived from the consent of the gov- 
erned, they uttered a doctrine that no nation had ever adopted, that not 
one kingdom on the earth then believed. Yet to our fathers it was so 
plain that they would not debate it._ They announced it as a truth ' self- 
evident.' 

"Whence came the immortal truths of the Declaration? To me this 
was for years the riddle of our history. I have searched long and 



■yt 282 LIFE or JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

patiently through the books of the doctrinaires to find the germs from 
which the Declaration of Independence sprang. I found hints in Locke, 
in Hobbes, in Rousseau, and Fenelon; but they were only the hints of 
dreamers and philosophers. The great doctrines of the Declaration ger- 
minated in the hearts of our fathers, and were developed under the new 
influences of this wilderness world, by the same subtle mystery which 
brings forth the rose from the germ of the rose-tree. Unconsciously to 
themselves, the great truths were growing under the new conditions until, 
like the century-plant, they blossomed into the matchless beauty of the 
Declaration of Independence, whose fruitage, increased and increasing, 
we enjoy to-day. • 

"It will not do, Mr. Chairman, to speak ox the gigantic revolution 
through which we have lately passed as a thing to be adjusted and settled 
by a change of administration. It was cyclical, epochal, century-wide, 
and to be studied in its broad and grand perspective — a revolution of even 
wider scope, so far as time is concerned, than the Revolution of 1776. 
We have been dealing with elements and forces which have been at w'ork 
on this continent more than two hundred and fifty years. I trust I shall 
be excused if I take a few moments to trace some of the leading phases 
of the great struggle. And, in doing so, I beg gentlemen to see that 
the subject itself lifts us into a region where the individual sinks out of 
sight and is absorbed in the mighty current of great events. It is not the 
occasion to award praise or pronounce condemnation. In such a revolu- 
tion men are like insects that fret and toss in the storm, but are swept on- 
\vard by the resistless movements of elements beyond their control. I 
speak of this revolution not to praise the men who aided it, or to censure 
the men who resisted it, but as a force to be studied, as a mantlate to be 
obeyed. 

In the year 1620 there were planted upon this continent two ideas irre- 
concilably hostile to each other. Ideas are the great warriors of the 
world; and a war that has no ideas behind it is simply brutality. The 
two ideas were landed, one at Plymouth Rock from the Mayflmver, and 
the other from a Dutch brig at Jamestowu, Virginia. One was the old 
doctrine of Luther, that private judgment in politics as well as religion, 
is the right and duty of every man; and the other that capital should 
own labor, that the negro had no rights of manhood, and the white man 
might justly buy, own, and sell him and his offspring forever. Thus 
freedom and equality on the one hand, and on the other the slavery of 



THE NOONTIDE.— REPLY TO LAMAR. 283 ,• 

one race and tlie domination of another, were the two germs plantfid on 
this eoutineut. In our vast expanse of wilderness, for a long time, there 
was room for both ; and their advocates began the race across the conti- 
nent, each developing the social and political institutions of their choice. 
Both had vast interests in common; and for a long time neither was con- 
scious of the fatal antagonisms that were developing. 

"For nearly two centuries there was no serious collision; but when 
the continent began to fill up, and the people began to jostle against 
each other; when the Roundhead and the Cavalier came near enough to 
measure opinions, the irreconcilable character of the two doctrines 
began to appear. Many conscientious men studied the subject, and 
came to the belief that slavery was a crime, a sin, or as Wesley said, 
' the sum of all villainies.' This belief dwelt in small minorities for a 
long time. It lived in the churches and vestries, but later found its way 
into the civil and political organizations of the country, and finally 
found its way into this chamber. A few brave, clear-sighted, far-seeing 
men announced it here, a little more than a generation ago. A prede- 
cessor of mine, Joshua R. Giddiugs, following the lead of John Quincy 
Adams, of Massachusetts, almost alone held up the banner on this floor, 
and from year to year comrades came to his side. Through evil and 
through good report he pressed the question upon the conscience of the 
nation. 

"iVnd so the contest continued ; the supporters of slavery believing 
honestly and sincerely that slavery was a divine institution; that it 
found its high sanctions in the living oracles of God and in a wise polit- 
ical philosophy ; that it was justified by the necessities of their situation ; 
and that slave-holders w^ere missionaries to the dark sons of Africa, to 
elevate and bless them. We are so far past the passions of that early 
time that we can now study the progress of the struggle as a great and 
inevitable development, without sharing in the crimination and recrim- 
ination that attended it. If both sides could have seen that it was a 
contest beyond their control; if both parties could have realized tlie truth 
that ' unsettled questions have no i)ity for the repose of nations,' nuicli 
less for the fate of political parties, the bitterness, the sorrow, the tears, 
and the blood might have been avoided. But we walked in the darkness, 
our paths obscured by the smoke of the conflict, each following his own 
convictions through ever-increasing fiercenes^s, until the debate culminated 



n 



in ' the last argument to which kings resort.' 



/37 

jt 284 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

" This conflict of opinion was not merely one of sentimental feeling; 
it involved our whole political system; it gave rise to two radically dif- 
ferent theories of the nature of our Government: the North believing 
and holding that we were a Nation, the South insisting that we were only a 
confederation of sovereign States, and insisting that each State had the 
right, at its own discretion, to break the Union, and constantly threat- 
ening secession where the full rights of slavery were not acknowledged. 

"Thus the defense and aggrandizement of slavery, and the hatred of 
Abolitionism, became not only the central idea of the Democratic party, 
but its master-passion — a passion intensified and inflamed by twenty-five 
years of fierce political contest, Avhich had not only driven from its ranks 
all those who preferred freedom to slavery, but had absorbed all the ex- 
treme pro-slavery elements of the fallen Whig party. Over against this 
was arrayed the Republican party, asserting the broad doctrines of nation- 
ality and loyalty, insisting that no State had a right. to secede, that 
secession was treason, and demanding that the institution of slavery 
should be restricted to the limits of the States where it already existed. 
But here and there, many bolder and more radical thinkers declared, 
with Wendell Phillips, that there never could be union and peace, free- 
dom and prosperity, until we were willing to see John Hancock under a 
black skin. 

^i >{; ^ ^ i\: ^ . ^ 

" Mr. Chairman, after the facts I have cited, am I not warranted in 
raising a grave doubt whether the transformation occurred at all except 
in a few patriotic and philosophic minds? The light gleams first on the 
mountain peaks ; but shadows and darkness linger in the valley. It is 
in the valley masses of those lately in rebellion that the light of this 
beautiful philosophy, which I honor, has not penetrated. It is safer to 
withhold from them the custody and supreme control of the precious 
treasures of the Republic until the midday sun of liberty, justice, and 
equal laws shall shine upon them with unclouded ray. 

" In view of all the facts, considering the centuries of influence that 
brought on the great struggle, is it not reasonable to suppose that it will 
require yet more time to effect the great transformation? Did not the dis- 
tinguished gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. George F. Hoar] sum up 
the case fairly and truthfully when he said of the South, in his Louis- 
iana report of 1874: 'They submitted to the national authority, not 
because they would, but because they must. They abandoned the doc- 



THE NOONTIDE.— REPLY TO LAMAR. 285 ^ 

trine of State sovereignty, which they had claimed made their duty to 
the State.s paramount to that due to the nation in ease of conflict, not 
becau.se they would, but because they must. They submitted to the 
constitutional amendments which rendered their former slaves tlu'ir 
equals in all political riaht.^, not because they would, but because they 
must. The passions which led to the war, the passions which the Avar 
excited, were left untamed and unchecked, except so far as their exhibi- 
tion was restrained by the arm of jjower.' 

"Mr. Chairman, it is now time to inquire as to the fitness of this 
Democratic party to take control of our great nation and its vast and im- 
portant intei-ests for the next four years. I put the question to the gentle- 
man from Mississippi [Mr. Lamar], Avhat has the Democratic party done 
to merit that great trust ? He tried to show in what respects it would 
not be dangerous. I ask him to show in what it would be safe. I afhiin, 
and I believe I do not misrepresent the great Democratic party, that in 
the last sixteen years they have not advanced one great national idea that 
is not to-day exploded and as dead as Julius Csesar. And if any Demo- 
crat here will rise and name a great national doctrine his paily has ad- 
vanced, within that time, that is now alive and believed in, I will yield 
to hear him. [A pause.] In defliult of an answer, I will attempt to 
prove my negative. 

"What were the great central doctrines of the Democratic party in 
the presidential struggle of 1860? The followers of Breckinridge said 
slavery had a right to go wherever the Constitution goes. Do you be- 
lieve that to-day? Is there a man on this continent that holds that doc- 
trine to-day? Not one. That doctrine is dead and buried. The other 
wing of the Democi-acy held that slavery might be established in the ter- 
ritories if the people wanted it. Does any body hold that doctrine to-day? 
Dead, absolutely dead ! 

" Come down to 1864. Your party, under the lead of Tilden and 
Yallandigham, declared the experiment of war to save the Union was a 
failure. Do you believe that doctrine to-day? That doctrine was shot 
to death by the guns of Farragut at Mobile, and driven, in a tempest of 
fire, from the valley of the Shenandoah by Sheridan less than a month 
after its birth at Chicago. 

"Come down to 1868. You 'declared the Constitutional Amendir.enls 
revolutionary and void. Does any man on this floor say so to-day ? If 
so, kit him rise and declare it. 



286 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

"Do you believe in the doctrine of the Broadhead letter of 1868. that 
the so-called Constitutional Amendments should be disregarded ? No ; 
the gentleman from Mississippi accepts the results of the war! The 
Democratic doctrine of 1868 is dead! 

" I walk across that Democratic camping-ground as in a graveyard. 
Under my feet resound the hollow echoes of the dead. There lies slavery, 
a black marble column at the head of its grave, on which I read : Died in 
the flames of the Civil War ; loved in its life ; lamented in its death ; fol- 
lowed to its bier by its only mourner, the Democratic party, but dead ! 
And here is a double grave : Sacred to the memory of Squatter Sov- 
ereignty. Died in the campaign of 1860. On the reverse side : Sacred 
to the memory of the Dred Scott-Breckinridge doctrine. Both died at 
the hands of Abraham Lincoln! And here a monument of brimstone: 
Sacred to the memory of the Rebellion; the war against it is a failure; 
Tilden et Vallandigham Jecernnt, A. D. 1864. Dead on the field of battle; 
shot to death by the million guns of the Republic. The doctrine of Se- 
cession ; of State Sovereignty. Dead. Expired in the flames of civil 
war, amidst the blazing rafters of the Confederacy, except that the mod- 
ern ^neas, fleeing out of the flames of that ruin, bears on his back 
another Anchises of State Sovereignty, and brings it here in the person 
of the honorable gentleman from the Appomattox district of Virginia 
[Mr. Tucker]. [Laughter.] All else is dead. 

"Now, gentlemen, are you sad, are you sorry for these deaths? Are 
you not glad that Secession is dead? that slavery is dead? that Squatter 
Sovereignty is dead ? that the doctrine of the failure of the war is dead ? 
Then you are glad that you Avere out-voted in 1860, in 1864, in 1868, 
and in 1872. If you have tears to shed over these losses, shed them in 
the graveyard, but not in this House- of living men. I know that many 
a Southern man rejoices tliat these issues are dead. The gentleman from 
Mississippi has clothed his joy with eloquence. 

"Now, gentlemen, if you yourselves are glad that you have suffered 
defeat during the last sixteen years, will you not be equally glad when 
you suffer defeat next November? [Laughter.] But pardon that re- 
mark ; I regret it ; I would use no bravado. 

"Now, gentlemen, come with me for a moment into the camp of the 
Republican pai'ty and review its career.' Our central doctrine in 1860 
was that slavery should never extend itself over another foot of American 
soil. Is that doctrine dead? It is folded away like a victorious banner; 



THE NOONTIDE.— REPLY TO LAMAR. 287 

its truth is alive for evermore on this continent. In 1864 we declared 
that we would put down the Rebellion and Secession. And that doctrine 
lives, and will live when the second Centennial has arrived! Freedom, 
national, universal, and perpetual — our great Constitutional Amend- 
ments, are they alive or dead? Alive, thank the God that shields both 
liberty and Union. And our national credit, saved from the assaults of 
Pendleton; saved from the assaults of those who struck it later, rising 
higher and higher at home and abroad; and only now in doubt lest its 
chief, its only enemy, the Democracy, should triumph in November. 

"Mr. Chairman, ought the Republican party to surrender its trun- 
cheon of command to the Democracy ? The gentleman from ]\Iississippi 
says, if this were England, the ministry would go out in twenty-four 
hours with such a state of things as we have here. Ah, yes! that is an 
ordinary case of change of administration. But if this were England, 
what would she have done at the end of the war? England made one 
such mistake as the gentleman asks this country to make, when she 
threw away the achievements of the grandest man that ever trod her 
highway of power. Oliver Cromwell had overturned the throne of 
despotic powei', and had lifted his country to a place of masterful great- 
ness among the nations of the earth; and when, after his death, his 
great scepter was transferred to a weak though not unlineal hand, his 
country, in a moment of reactionary blindness, brought back the Stuarts. 
England did not recover from that folly until, in 1689, the Prince of 
Orange drove from her island the last of that weak and wicked line. 
Did she afterward repeat the blunder? 

"For more than fifty years pretenders were seeking the throne; and 
the wars on her coast, in Scotland and in Ireland, threatened the over- 
throw of the new dynasty and the disruption of the empire. But the 
solid phlegm, the magnificent pluck, the roundabout common-sense of 
Englishmen steadied the throne till the cause of the Stuarts was dead. 
They did not change as soon as the battle was over and let the Stuarts 
come back to power. 

"And how was it in our own country, when our fathers had triumphed 
in the war of the Revolution? When the victory was won, did they 
open their arms to the Loyalist's, as they called themselves, or Tories, as 
our fathers called them? Did they invite them back? Not one. They 
confiscated their lands. The States passed decrees that no Tory should 
live on our soil. And when they w^ere too poor to take themselves away, 



^ 288 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

our fathers, burdened as the young nation was with debt, raised the 
money to transport the Tories beyond seas or across the Canada border. 
They went to England, to France, to Nova Scotia, to New Brunswick, 
and especially to Halifax ; and that town was such a resort for them, 
that it became the swear-word of our boyhood. 'Go to Halifax!' was a 
substitute for a more impious, but not more opprobrious expression. 
The presence of Tories made it opprobrious. 

"Now, I do not refer to this as an example which we ought to follow. 
Oh, iio. AVe live in a milder era, in an age softened by the more genial 
influence, of Christian civilization. Witness the sixty-one men who 
fought against us in the late war, and who are now sitting in this and 
the other chamber of Congress. Every one of them is here because a 
magnanimous nation freely voted that they might come; and they are 
welcome. Only please do not say that you are just now especially fitted 
to rule the Republic, and to be the apostles of liberty and of blessings to 
the colored race. 

"Gentlemen, the North has been asked tliese many years to regard 
the sensibilities of the South. We have been told that you Avere brave 
and sensitive men, and that we ought not to throw firebrands among 
you. Most of our people have treated you with justice and magnanimity. 
In some things we have given you just cause for complaint; but I want 
to remind you that the North also has sensibilities to be regarded. The 
ideas which they cherished, and for which they fought, triumphed in the 
highest court, the court of last resort, the field of battle. Our people 
intend to abide by that verdict and to enforce the mandate. They re- 
joice at every evidence of acquiescence. They look forward to the day 
when the distinctions of North and South shall have melted away in the 
grander sentiment of nationality. But they do not think it is yet safe to 
place the control of this great work in your hands. In the hands of 
some of you they would be safe, perfectly safe; but into the hands of the 
united South, joined with the most reactionary elements of the Northern 
Democracy, our joeople will not yet surrender the government. 

"I am aware that there is a general disposition 'to let "by-gones be 
by-gones,' and to judge of parties and of men, not by what they have 
been, but by what they are and what they propose. 

"That view is partly just and partly erroneous. It is just and wise to 
bury resentments and animosities. It is erroneous in this, that parties 
have an organic life and spirit of their own — an individuality and char- 



THE NOONTIDE.— AN ELOQUENT TKIBUTE. * 289 X 

acter which outlive the men who compose them ; and the spirit and tra- 
ditions of a party should be considered in determining their fitness for 
managing the affairs of a nation. For this purpose I have reviewed the 
history of the Democratic party." 

Long ago an arrangement was perfected by which, each 
State of the Union should be allowed to place in the halls 
of Congress two statues of distinguished citizens. On Decem- 
ber 19, 1876, the State of Massachusetts announced its read- 
iness to comply with this arrangement, by presentiTig two 
statues, one of John Winthrop and one of Samuel Adams. 

Speaking on the resolution of that day, accepting this gift, 
Mr. Garfield made one of the most felicitous of the many 
speeches of this kind that he has left on record. One para- 
graph from this address can not be omitted here : 

"As, from time to time, our venerable and beautiful Hall has been 
peopled with statues of the elect of the States, it has seemed to me that 
a Third House was being organized witliin the walls of the Capitol — a 
house whose members have received their high credentials at the hands of 
liistory, and whose terra of office will outlast the ages. Year by year we 
see the circle of its immo^-tal membership enlarging ; year by year we 
see the elect of their country, in eloquent silence, taking their places in 
this American Pantheon, bringing within its sacred circle the wealth of 
those immortal memories which made their lives illustrious ; and vcar 
by year that august assembly is teaching a- deeper and grander lesson to 
all who serve their brief hour in these more ephemeral Houses of Con- 
gress. And now two places of great honor have just been iriost nobly 
filled." 

Of a truth. General Garfield understood and ap])rcciated the 
greatness of the Kepublic, and the grandeur of the character 
which belonged to its founders! 

The election for President, in 1876, and the diflieulty which 
arose in deciding its results, will not be forgotten by this gen- 
eration, or left out of the studies of American statesmen in 
the future. We still vividly recollect how narrow the majority, 

and how uncertain; how nil depended on three doubtful 
19 



^ 290' 



UCFE OF JAMES A. GASFEELP. 



Southern States ; how the - visiting statesmen " went to Xew 
Orleans to watch the count before the Returning Board; how 
the nation waited breathless while these momentous calcula- 
tions were being made. And finally, we long shall remember 
that famous Electoral Commission which bv an ei^ht to seven 
vote made R. B. Haves President of the United States. 

Arrivins: at Washinsrton earlv in Xovember. General Gar- 
field was requested by President Grant to go to Xew Orleans 
with the little company of Democratic and Republican lead- 
ers who were there. General Garfield arrived in !!!s^ew Orleans 
,on Xovember fourteenth. In common with other membere of 
the Repub'iean Committee, he refused to unite in any move- 
ment to in anv wav infiuence the Retuminsr Board in its can- 
vass of the vote. He was there simply to witness what was 
done; not to take part in the proceedings. 

These visitors of both parties were given opportunities to 
witness the count, five of each party being there all the time. 
They were furnished with copies of all testimony taken; 
and to simplify the work, the study of this testimony was dis- 
tributed out among individuals. General Garfield was given 
all the papers regarding East Feliciana parish, which he thor- 
oughly examined, and even recalled and re-examined some of 
the witnesses. 

In the work before the Returning Board, that Board allowed 
these witnesses to ask questions, and to take copies of all the 
papers. Each party was also represented by counsel, who ar- 
gued the disputed points. 

This was the work of the " visiting statesmen." When the can- 
vassing of votes was completed, without waiting for or trying to in- 
fluence the result. General Garfield returned to Washington, as 
did nearly all the others. 

It has been a question whether outsiders ought to have been at 
!yew Orleans at all in this emergency. Certainly a public man 
ran great risk of doing himself harm by gc»ing, and it required the 
utmost circumspection to get out of it, clear from suspicion of evil. 
A year afierward this afiair was examined by the Potter Committee, 



THE NOONTIDE.- THE ELECTOKAL COMMISSION. 291 

and of Garfield, the worst they could .say was this : " We found, uo 
fault in him." 

But the struggle at New Orleans did not decide it all. When 
January came it was seen that there would still be trouble in de- 
ciding who were elected. It was feared by all that an attempt to 
decide by the existing laws, without the help of further provisions, 
micrht lead to serious difficulties. 

Accordingly, on January 29, 1877, there was passed in the House 
a law providing for the Electoral Commission, a body to be com- 
posed of fi[ve Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, five Senators 
and five Representatives, to whom should be committed the duty of 
deciding, by their recommendation, the votes of any disputed States. 

General Garfield was opposed to this commission, which he thought 
an unhappy way of ending the trouble. His views are given in a 
speech made to the House, on January 25, wherein he said: 

" What, then, are the grounds on which we should consider a bill like 
tills? It would be unbecoming in me or in any member of this Con- 
gress to o])pose this bill on mei'e technical or trifling grounds. It should 
be opposed, if at all, for reasons so broad, so weighty, as to overcome 
all th.it has been said in its favor, and all the advantages which I have 
here admitted uia}' follow from its passage. I do not wish to diminish 
the stature of my antagonist; I do not wish to undervalue the points of 
strength in a measure before I question its propriety. It is not enough 
that this bill will tide us over a present danger, however great. Let us 
for a moment forget Hayes and Tilden, Republicans and Democrats ; let 
us forget our own epoch and our own generation ; and, entering a l)roader 
field, inquire how this thing which we are about to do will .effect the 
great feature of our republic, and in what condition, if we pass this bill, 
we shall transmit our institutions to those who shall come after us. The 
present good which we shall achieve by it may be very great; yet if the 
evils that wmII flow from it in tlie future must be greater, it would be 
base in us to flinch from trouble by entailing remediless evils upon our 
children. 

" In my view, then, the foremo>t question is this: What will be the 
effect of this measure upon our institutions? I can not make that inquiry 
intelligibly without a brief reference to the history of the Constitution, 
and to some of the formidable questions which presented themselves to 



y 292 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

our fathers nearly a hundred years ago, when they set up this goodly 
frame of Government. 

"Among the foremost difficulties, both in point of tiuie and magni- 
tude, was how to create an executive head of the Nation. Our fathers 
encountered that difficulty the first morning after they organized and 
elected the officers of the Constitutional Convention. 'Ihe first resolution 
introduced by Kandolph, of Virginia, on the 29th day of May, recog- 
nized that great question, and invited the Convention to its examina- 
tion. The men who made the Constitution were deeply read in the pro- 
foundest political philosophy of their day. They had learned from Mon- 
tesquieu, from Locke, from Feuelon, and other good teachers of the human 
race, that liberty is impossible without a clear and distinct separation of 
the three great powers of government. A generation before their epoch, 
Montesquieu had said : 

" ' When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same 
person or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty, be- 
cause apprehensions may arise lest the same monarch or senate should 
enact tyrannical laws and execute them in a tyrannical manner. 

^jn *■(■* *^ *'j^ ^j^ ^1^ #1'* ^^ 

" ' There would be an end of every thing were the same man or the same 
body, whether of the nobles or of the people, to exercise these three 
powers, that of enacting the laws, that of executing the public resolu- 
tions, and of trying the causes of individuals.' 

"This was a fundamental truth in the American mind, as it had long 
been cherished and practiced in the British empire. 

" There, as in all monarchies, the creation of a chief executive was 
easily regulated by adopting a dynasty, and following the law of primo- 
geniture. 

" But our fathers had drawn the deeper lesson of liberty from the in- 
spirations of this free New World, that their Chief Executive should be 
born, not of a dynasty, but of the will of a free people regulated by law. 

" In the course of their deliberations upon this subject, there were sug- 
gested seven different plans, which may be grouped under two principal 
heads or classes. One group comprised all the plans for creating the 
Chief Executive by means of sonae one of the preexisting political organ- 
izations of the country. First and foremost was the proposition to 
authorize one or both Houses of the Natiotial Legislature to elect the 
Chief Executive. Another was to confer that power upon the governors 



THE NOONTIDE.— THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION. 293 

of the States, or upon the legislatures of the States. Another, that he 
should be chosen directly i)y the people themselves under the laws of the 
States. The second group comprised all the various plans for creating a 
new and separate instrumentality for making the choice. 

" At first the proposition that the Executive should be elected by the 
National Legislature was received by the Convention with almost unan- 
imous approval ; and for the reason that up to that time Congress had 
done all that was done in the way of national government. It had created 
the nation and led its fortunes through a thousand perils, had declared 
and achieved independence, and had preserved the liberty of the people 
in the midst of a great war. Though Congress had failed to secure a 
firm and stabie Government after the war, yet its glory was not forgotten. 
As Congress had created the Union, it was most natural that our fathers 
should say Congress should also create the Chief Executive of the nation. 
And within two weeks after the Convention assembled, they voted for 
that })lan with absolute unanimity. 

"But with equal unanimity they agreed that this ])lan would be fatal 
to the stability of the Government they were about to establish, if they 
did not couple with it some provision that should make the President's 
functions independent of the power that created him. To effect this, 
they provided that the President should be ineligible for i-eelection. They 
said it would never do to create a Chief Executive by the voice of the 
National Legislature, and then allow him to be reelected by that same 
voice; for he would thus become their creature. 

"And so, from the first day of their session in May, to within five 
days of its close in September, they grappled with the mighty question. 
I have many times, and recently very carefully, gone through all the 
records that are left to us of that great transaction. I find that more 
than one-seventh of all the pages of the Madison papers are devoted to 
this Samson of questions, how the Executive should be chosen and made 
independent of the organization that made the choice. This topic alone 
occupied more than one-seventh of all the time of the Convention. 

" After a long and earnest debate, after numerous votes and recon- 
siderations, they were obliged utterly to abandon the plan of creating 
the Chief Executive by means of the National Legislature. I will not 
stop now to prove the statement by a dozen or more pungent quotations 
from the masters of political science in that great assembly, in which 
they declared that it would be ruinous to the liberty of the people and 



y 294 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

to the permanence of the Republic if they did not absokitely exclude the 
National Legislature from any share in the election of the President. 

" They pointed with j^dowing eloquence to the .'^ad but instructive fate 
of those brilliant Italian republics that were destroyed because there was 
no adequate separation of pow'ers, and because their senates overwhelmed 
and swallowed up the executive power, and, as secret and despotic con- 
claves, became the destroyers of Italian liberty. 

"At the close of the great discussion, w'hen the last vote on this 
subject Avas taken by our fathers, they were almost unanimous in ex- 
cluding the National Legislature from any share whatever in the choice 
of tiie Chief Executive of the nation. They rejected all the plans of 
the first group, and created a new instrumentality. They adopted the 
system of electors. When that plan was under discussion, they used 
the utmost precaution to hedge it about by every conceivable pi'otection 
against tlie interference or control of Congress. 

"In the first place, they said the States shall create the electoral 
colleges. They allowed Congress to have nothing whatever to do with 
the creation of the colleges, except merely to fix the time when the 
States should appoint them. And, in order to exclude Congress by 
positive prohibition, in the last days of th(> Convention they provided 
that no member of either House of Congress should be appointed an 
elector ; so that not even by the personal influence of any one of its 
members could the Congress interfere with the election of a President. 

"The creation of a President under our Constitution consists of three 
distinct steps: First, the creation of the electoral colleges; second, the 
vote of colleges ; and third, the opening and counting of their votes. 
This is the simple plan of the Constitution. 

"The creation of the colleges is left absolutely to the States, within 
the five limitations I had the honor to mention to the House a few days 
ago. First, it must be a State that appoints electors ; second, the State 
is limited as to the number of electors it may appoint ; third, electors 
shall not be members of Congress or oificers of the United States ; 
fourth, the time for appointing electors may be fixed by Congress; and, 
fifth, the time when their appointment is announced, which must be 
before the date for giving their votes, may also be fixed by Congress. 

"These five simple limitations, and these alone, were laid upon the 
States. Every other act, fiict, and thing possible to be done in creating 
the electoral colleges was absolutely and uncontrollably in the power of 



THE NOONTIDE.— THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION. 295 X 

the States tlieuiselves. AVitliin these limitations, C()ngre.«s hus no more 
power to touch them in this work than Enghiud or Fnuice. That is the 
first step. 

" The second is still plainer and simpler, namely, the work of the 
colleges. They were created as an independent and separate power, or 
set of powers, for the sole purpose of electing a President. They were 
created by the States. Congress has just one thing to do with them, 
and only one : it may fix the day when they shall meet. By the aci of 
1792 Congress fixed the day as it still stands in the law ; and there the 
authority of the Congress over the colleges ended. 

"There was a later act — of 1845 — which gave to the States the author- 
ity to provide by law for filling vacancies of electors in these colleges; 
and Congress has passed no other law on the subject. 

" The States having created them, the time of their assemblage having 
been fixed by Congress, and their power to fill vacancies having been 
regulated by State laws, the colleges are as independent in the exercise 
of their functions as is any department of the Government within its 
spliere. Being thus equipped, their powers are restrained by a few simple 
limitations laid upon them by the Constitution itself: first, they must 
vote for a native-born citizen; second, for a man who has been fourteen 
years a resident of the United States; third, at least one of the persons 
for whom they vote must not be a citizen of their own State; fourth, the 
mode of voting and certifying their returns is prescribed by the Consti- 
tution itself. Within these simple and plain limitations the electoral 
colleges are absolutely independent of the States and of Congress. 

"One fact in the history of the Constitutional Convention, which I 
have not seen noticed in any of the recent debates, illustrates very clearly 
how careful our fathers were to preserve these colleges from the interfer- 
ence of Congress, and to protect their independence by the bulwarks of 
the Constitution itself. In the draught of the electoral system reported 
September 4, 1787, it was provided that Congress 'may determine the 
time of choosing and assembling of the electors and the manner of certi- 
fying and transmitting their votes.' 

" That was the language of the original draught; but our fathers had 
determined that the National Legislature should have nothing to do with 
the action of the colleges ; and the words that gave Congress tlie powei- 
to prescribe the manner of certifying and transmitting their votes were 
stricken out. The instrument itself prescribed the mode. Thus Con- 



296 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

gress was wholly expelled from the colleges. The Constitution swept the 
ground clear of all intruders, and placed its own imperial guardianship 
around the independence of the electoral colleges by forbidding even Con- 
gress to enter the sacred circle. No Congres>nian could' enter ; and, ex- 
cept to fix the day of their meeting. Congress could not speak to the 
electors. 

''These colleges are none the less sovereign and independent because 
they exist only for a day. They meet on the same day in all the States ; 
they do their work summarily in one day, and dissolve for ever. There 
is no power to interfere, no power to recall thtm, no jwwer to revise their 
action. Their work is done ; the record is made up, signed, sealed, and 
trmismitted ; and thus the second great act in the Presidential election is 
completed. I ought to correct mj-self ; the second act is the Presidential 
election. The election is finished the hour when the electoral colleges 
have cast their votes and sealed up the record. 

"Still, there is a third step in the process; and it is shorter, plainer, 
simpler than the other two. These sealed certificates of the electoral 
colleges are forwarded to the President of the Senate, where they rest 
under the silence of the seals for more than two months. The Constitu- 
tion assumes that the result of the election is still unknown. But on a 
day fixed by law, and the only day of all the days of February on which 
the law commands Congress to be in session, the last act in the plan of 
electing a President is to be performed. 

" How plain and simple are the words that describe this third and last 
step. Here they are : 

" ' The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of 
Eepresentatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted.' 

"Here is no ambiguity. Two words dominate and inspire the clause. 
They are the words open and count. These words are not shrouded in the 
black-letter mysteries of the law. They are plain words, understood by 
every man who speaks our mother-tongue, and need no lexicon or com- 
mentary. 

"Consider the grand and simple ceremonial by which the third act is 
te be completed. On the day fixed by law the two Houses of Congress 
are assembled. The President of the Senate, who, by the Constitution, 
has been made the custodian of the sealed certificates from all the electo- 
ral colleges, takes his place. The Constitution requires a ' person' and a 
' presence.' That ' perso;i ' is the President of the Senate ; and that 



THE NOONTIDE.— NATIONAL ELECTION. 297 

' j)reseiice' is the ' presence' of the two Houses. "Theu two things are to 
be do)ie. The certificates are to be opened, and the votes are to be counted. 
These are not legislative acts, but clearly and plainly executive acts. I 
challenge any man to find anywhere an accepted definition of an executive 
act that does not include both these. They can not be tortured into a 
meaning that will carry them beyond the boundaries of executive action. 
And one of these acts the President of the Senate is peremptorily ordered 
to perform. The Constitution commands him to ' ojien all the certificates.' 
Certificates of what? Certificates of the votes of the electoral colleges. 
Not any certificates that any body may choose to send, but certificates of 
electors appointed by the States. The President of the Senate is presumed 
to know what are the States in the Union, who are their ofiicers, and, 
when he opens the certificates, he learns from the ofiicial record who have 
been appointed electors, and he finds their votes. 

" The Constitution contemplated the President of the Senate as the 
Vice-President of the United States, the elect of all the people. And to 
him is confided the great trust, the custodianship of the only official rec- 
ord of the election of President. What is it to 'open the certificates'? 
It would be a narrow and inadequate view of that word to say that it 
means only the breaking of the seals.' To open an envelope is not to 
' open the certificates.' The certificate is not the paper on which the rec- 
ord is made ; it is the record itself. To open the certificates is not a phys- 
ical but an intellectual act. It is to make patent the record ; to publish 
it. When that is done the election of President and Vice-President is 
published. But one thing remains to be done; and here the language of 
the Constitution changes from the active to the passive voice, from the 
personal to the impersonal. To the trusted custodian of the votes suc- 
ceeds the impersonality of arithmetic ; the votes have been made known ; 
there remains only the command of the Constitution : ' They shall be 
counted' — that is, the numbers shall be added up. 

"No further act is required. The Constitution itself declares the 
result : 

'"The person having the greatest niinihor of votes for President shall be Presi- 
dent, if snch number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed.' 

"If no person has such majority, the House of Representatives shall 
imviediately choose a President; not the House as organized for legislation, 
but a new electoral college is created out of the members of the House, 
by means of which each State has one vote for President, and only one. 



•298 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

"To review the ground over which I liave traveled: The several acts 
that constitute the election of a President may he symbolized by a pyramid 
consisting of three massive, separate bL^cks. The first, the creation of the 
electoral college by the States, is tlie broad base. It embraces the legis- 
lative, the judicial, and the executive powers of the States. All the de- 
partments of the State government and all the voters of the State codpe- 
rate in shaping and perfecting it. 

"The action of the electoral colleges forms the second block, perfect in 
itself, and independent of the others, superimposed with exactness upon 
the first. 

"The opening and counting of the votes of the colleges is the little 
block that crowns and completes the pyramid.. 

Such, Mr. Speaker, was the grand and simple plan by which the framers 
of the Constitution empowered all the people, acting under the laws of 
the several Statfes, to create special and select colleges of independent 
electors to choose a President, who should be, not the creature of Con- 
gress, nor of the States, but the Chief ^lagistrate of the whole Nation — 
the elect of ail the people. 

But the Electoral Commission was constituted by law, and Gar- 
fickl himself chosen unanimously by his party as a member thereof. 
He accepted, saying: "Since you have appointed me, I will serve. 
I can act on a committee when I do not believe in its validity." 
That fact could not affect the justice of his decisions. 

It is impossible to even hint at more than a small portion of 
the vast field of work which occupied General Garfield during 
this and the succeeding Congress. 

On November 16, 1877, he made a very able speech on the sub- 
ject of Resumption of Payments ; an address which would serve 
to perpetuate his fame, if he had no other monument. 

In the Ailantie Monthly of February, 1870, appeared an article 
from his pen, entitled "The Currency Conflict." On June 4, of 
the same year, he opposed, in an elaborate address, a tariff bill 
brought in by Mr. Morrison, of Illinois, 

June 22, 1876, was to him the "sad occasion dear" of a revival 
of precious memories. In the preceding December his old friend 
and fellow-student of Hiram, Miss Booth, had died, and this day 



THE NOONTIDE.— TRIBUTE TO MISS BOOTH. 299 

in June Avas appointed there for a memorial address by General 
Gariield. As at all sueli times when he spoke, we are struck with 
a sense of the wonderful delicacy of this man's nature, which re- 
sponded so perfectly to every delicate and holy sentiment known 
to the human heart. His very first words were : 

" 3fr. President: You have called me to a duty at once most f-ad and 
most sacred. At every step of my preparation for its performance, I 
have encountered troops 'of thronging memories that swept across the 
field of the last twenty-five years of my life, and so filled my heart with 
the lights and shadows of their joy and sorrow that I have hardly been 
able to marshal them into order or give them coherent voice. I have 
lived over again the life of this place. I have seen again the groups 
of young and joyous students, ascending these green slopes, dwelling for 
a time on this peaceful height in happy and workful companionship, and 
then, with firmer stej), and with more serious and thoughtful faces, 
marching away to their posts in the battle of life. 

"And" still nearer and clearer have come back the memories of lliat 
smaller band of friends, the leaders and guides of tiiose who eupaniped 
on this training-ground: On my jcnn-ney to this assembly, it has seemed 
that they, too, were coming, and that I should once more meet and 
greet them. And I have not yet been able to realize that Almeda 
Booth will not be with us. After our great loss, how shall we gather 
up the fragments of the life we lived in this place? We are mariners, 
treading the lonely shore in search of our surviving comrades and tlie 
fragments of our good ship, wrecked by the tempest. To her, indeed, 
it is no wreck. She has landed in safety, and ascended the immortal 
heights beyond our vision." 

The death of Michael C. Kerr having made necessary the selec- 
tion of a new Speaker, the Democratic majority in the House 
elected Samuel J. Randall, and the complimentary vote of the 
Republicans went to General Garfield. He was also their candi- 
date in the two succeeding Congresses. He had divided the honor 
of leadership pretty evenly with Mr. Blaine, until, in ISTT, the 
latter gentleman went to the Senate, and left Garfield Avilhout a 
rival. Fourteen years of able and faithful service hud done ihcir 
work grandly for his power and bis fame. 



300 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

On February 12, 1878, Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson, of New York 
City, presented to Congress that great painting of Carpenter, " Lin- 
cohi and Emancipation." At her request the presentation address 
was made by General Garfield. 

His important speeches during this Congress were even more 
numerous than usual; especially in the special session held in the 
spring and summer of 1879. One of the best was that of February 
19, 1878, on the "Policy of Pacification, and the Prosecutions in 
Louisiana." At this time there were two serious political storms 
brewing in the air. First, there were divisions in the Republican 
party, and an alienation of some of its leaders from President 
Haves; second, the Democratic party, with its cries of "fraud," 
concerning the last election, and its Potter Committee, and its 
prosecutions against the members of the Louisiana Ileturning 
Board, was trying to destroy the people's confidence in the Gov- 
ernment as then constituted. The latter quarrel no doubt was the 
salvation of the party concerned in the former. Its members ral- 
lied and united. Garfield was leader and chief promoter of Repub- 
lican harmony, as well as the strongest bulwark against the enemy. 

This speech of February 19 contains the following pithy para- 
graph, descriptive of the way in which the nation had passed 
through the transformations of war : 

"There was, first, the military stage — the period of force, of open and 
bloody war — in which gentlemen of high character and honor met on 
the fiekl, and decided by the power of the strongest the questions in- 
volved in the high court of war. That period passed, but did not leave 
us on the calm level of peace. It brought us to the period of transition, 
in which the elements of war and peace were mingled together in strange 
and anarchic confusion. It was a period of civil and militar}^ elements 
combined. All through that semi-mihtary period the administration of 
General Grant had, of necessity, to conduct the country. His adminis- 
tration was not all civil, it was not all military; it was necessarily a 
combination of both ; and out of that combination came many of the 
strange and anomalous situations which ahvays follow such a war." 

Again : 

"Our great military chieftain, who brought the war to a successful 



THE NUOKTIDE.— ADDRESSES. 301 

conclusion, bad cominaud us chief executive during eiglit years of turbu- 
lent, difficult, and eventful administration. He saw bis administration 
drawing to a close, and bis successor elected — who, studying the question, 
came to the conclusion that the epoch had arrived, the hour had struck, 
when it was possible to declare that the semi-military period was ended, 
and the era of peace methods, of civil processes, should be fully inaugu- 
rated. With that spirit, and at the beginning of this third era, Euther- 
ford B. Hayes came into the Presidency. I ought to say that, in my 
judgment, more than any other public man we have known, the present 
head of the administration is an optimist. He looks on the best side of 
things. He is hopeful for the future, and prefers to look upon the 
bright side rather than upon the dark and sinister side of human nature. 
His faith is larger thau the faith of most of us ; and with his faith and 
hope he has gone to the very verge of the Constitution in offering both 
hands of fellowship and all the olive-branches of peace to bring back 
good feeling, and achieve the real pacification to this country." 

After this came a brief protest against the Bland Silver Bill, 
February 28, 1878. On March 6, 1878, he delivered his "New 
Scheme of American Finance," being in answer to a personal 
attack of William D. Kelley, the great protective tariff advo- 
cate, of Pennsylvania. Other addresses were, " The Army and 
the PubUc Peace," May 21, 1878; reply to Mr. Tucker on the 
"Tariff," June 4,1878; "Honest Money," a speech delivered 
at Boston, in Faneuil Hall, September 10, 1878; "Suspension 
and Resumption of Specie Payments," at Chicago, January 2, 
1879, before the Honest Money League of the N'orth-west; in 
memory of Joseph Henry, January 16, 1879 ; " Relation of Gov- 
ernment to Science," February 11, 1879 ; in memory of the late 
Hon. Gustave Schleicher, February 17, 1879 ; and a very inter- 
esting speech of February 26, 1879, about the " Sugar Tariff." 

When March 3,1879, came, the Forty -Fifth Congress went out 
with much of its important business undone ; two of the great ap- 
propriation bills had not passed on account of political difHcul- 
ties. The Democrats attempted to force assent to some of 
their schemes by tacking their propositions to the Approprition 
bill. But this measure the Republicans resisted to tlie last. 
And so it happened that in March, 1879, President Hayes was 



302 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

obliged to call an extra session. But here the old fight was 
renewed, and a long " dead lock" followed. 

Throughout this struggle, Garfield was the central figure in 
the front rank of his party in the House. Scarcely had Con- 
gress assembled when the old Army Bill was reported. Then, 
in Committee of the Whole, the old "rider" was moved 
as an amendment. The Chair decided this amendment in 
order, whereupon there was great indignation on the llei)ub- 
lican side, and a remarkable debate ensued. Garfield made his 
principal protest while things were in this situation, on March 
29, 1879, in a speech entitled "Revolution in Congress." 

Throughout this special session the fierce heat of political , 
conflict grew more intense every day, like the sun whose burn- 
ing rays beat down upon the Capitol. On April 4, Garfield 
spoke again on the subject which had occupied his attention 
six days before. April 26, he spoke on the passage of the 
Legislative Appropriation Bill; May 17, against unlimited 
coinage of silver; June 19, on the Judicial Appropriation Bill; 
June 21, concerning a proposed survey of the Mississippi River, 
in the course of which he said : 

"But for myself, I believe that one of the grandest of our material na- 
tional interests — one that is national in the largest material sense of that 
Avord — is the Mississippi River and its navigable tributaries. It is the 
most gigantic single natural feature of our continent, far transcending 
the glory of the ancient Nile or of any other river on the earth. The 
statesmanship of America must grapple the problem of this mighty 
stream. It is too vast for any State to handle; too much for any au- 
thority less than that of the nation itself to manage. And I believe the 
time will come when the liberal-minded statesmanship of this country 
will devise a wise and comprehensive system, that will harness the pow- 
ers of this great river to the material interests of America, so that not 
only all the people who live on its banks and the banks of its confluents, 
but all the citizens of the Republic, whether dwellers in the central val- 
ley or on the slope of either ocean, will recognize the importance of 
preserving and perfecting this great natural and material bond of national 
union between the North and the South — a bcmd to be so strengthened 
by commerce and intercourse that it can never be severed." 



THE NOONTIDE.- UNITED STATES MAKSIIALS. 303 

Thus refreshed by something more libcrul than the recent 
discussions iu which he had been engaged, Garfield soon re- 
sumed the struggle, and on June 27, 1879, gave tlie Demo- 
cratic party and the South a regular broadside on " State Sov- 
ereignty." 

The Special Session of 1879 came to an end on July 1st. At 
its beginning the dominant power in the House loudly pro- 
claimed its intention to push its measures through at all haz- 
ards. The appropriation bills, with tbeir obnoxious "riders," 
were passed; the President vetoed them. It then became a 
question of revolution or yielding. There was no revolution! 
Every dollar called for by the Government was voted, except 
the pay of the United States marshals, who overcame the 
difficulty by paymg their own expenses, trusting a future ses- 
sion of Congress to repay them. 

According to his custom. General Garfield spoke often dur- 
ing the Ohio campaign of 1879 ; a good specimen of his stump 
speeches is the one at Cleveland, on October 11th, of this year. 
At the Andersonville Reunion, held in Toledo, Ohio, on Octo- 
ber 3d, he had been present and addressed the throng of Union 
soldiers and ex-prisoners who met there. 

During the regular sessions of the Forty-Sixth Congress his 
activity was undiminished. In his speech of March 17, dur- 
ing the discussion of a bill to pay the United States marshals 
for the year ending June 30, 1880, we find such sterling utter- 
ances as these : 

"Mr. Cliairman : When I took my seat as a member of this House, I 
took it with all the responsibilities Avhich the place brought upon ine; 
and among others was my duty to keep the obligations of the law. 
Where the law speaks in mi'ndatory terms to every body else and then to 
me, I should deem it cowardly arid dishonorahle if I should skulk behiad 
my legislative privilege for tlie purpose of disobeying and breaking the 
supreme law of the land. 

"The issue now made is somewhat different from that of the last ses- 
sion, but, in my judgment, it is not less significant and dangerous. I 
would gladly waive any party advantage which thi.s controversy might 



304 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

give for tlie sake of that calm and settled peace wliich would reign in 
this Hall if we all obeyed the law. But if the leaders on the other side 
are still determined to rush upon their fate by forcing upon the country 
this last issue — that because the Democratic party happen not to like a 
law they will not obey it — because they happen not to approve of the 
spirit and character of a law they will not let it be executed — I say to 
gentlemen on the other side, if you are determined to make such an issue, 
it is high time that the American people should know it. 

" Here is the volnnie of our laws. More sacred than the twelve tables 
of ivome, this rock of the law rises in monumental grandeur alike above 
the ][,eople and the President, above the courts, above Congress, com- 
manding everywhere reverence and obedience to its supreme authority. 
Yet the dominant party in this House virtually declares that ' any part 
of this volume that Ave do not like and can not repeal we will disobey. 
We have tried to repeal these election laws; we have failed because we 
had not the constitutional power to destroy them; the Constitution says 
they shall stand in their authority and power; but we, the Democratic 
party, in defiance of the Constitution, declare that if we can not destroy 
them outright by the repeal, they shall be left to crumble into ruin by 
wanton and lawless neglect.' , 

" ^Ir. Chairman, by far the most formidable danger that threatens the 
Republic to-day is the spirit of law-breaking which shows itself in many 
turbulent and alarming manifestations. The people of the Pacific Coast, 
after two years of wrestling with the spirit of communism in the city of 
San Francisco, have finally grappled with this lawless spirit, and the 
leader of it was yesterday sentenced to penal servitude as a violator of the 
law. But what can we say to Denis Kearney and his associates if to-day 
we announce ourselves the foremost law-breakers of the country and set 
an example to all the turbulent and vicious elements of disorder to fol- 
low us? 

"I ask, gentlemen, whether this is a time when it is safe to disregard 
and weaken the authority of law. In all quarters the civil society of this 
c untry is becoming honeycombed through and through by disintegrating 
forces — in some States by the violation of contracts and the repudiation 
of debts ; in others by open resistance and defiance ; in still others by the 
reckless overturning of constitutions and letting the 'red fool fury of the 
Seine' run riot among our people and build its blazing altars to tlie stninge 
gods of ruin and misrule. All these things are shaking the good order of 



THE NOONTIDE— SENATOR. 305 

society and threatening the foundations of our Government and our peace. 
In a time like this, more than ever before, this country needs a body of 
lawgivers clothed and in their right minds, who have laid their hands 
upon the altar of the law as its defenders, not its destroyers." 

April 5, 1880, General Garfield made a trenchant argument 
against a pet measure of the greenback apostle, ]\Ir. "Weaver. 
Five days afterward occurred a debate between Garfield and 
McMahon, also of Ohio, on the pending Appropriation bill. 

On May first he made a personal explanation, defending his 
committee action in regard to the so-called wood-pulp mo- 
nopoly. This pulp is obtained from soft wood and used in 
the manufacture of paper. The newspapers everywhere were 
calling for a removal of the duty on this their great necessity. 
Garfield stood out for a ten per cent, tarifli", as a protection to 
our manufacturers from the Canadian manufacturers, who had 
no ro3'alties to pay, and therefore could have undersold us. 
In this speech Garfield met the charge of being a monopoly 
supporter, and vindicated his policy on the disputed question. 

Turning aside from this well-fought field where Garfield 
had so long stood, as a great representative of all that is good 
in the recent legislative history of our country, it is time to 
view the new honors which were now preparing for him. 

On the fourteenth of January, 1880, the Ohio Legislature 
elected James A. Garfield to the United States Senate, to 
succeed Mr. Thurman, whose term was to expire in the fol- 
lowing March. So thoroughly had Garfield recovered from the 
wave of scandal which a few years earlier had swept over but 
could not overwhelm him, that he was the unanimous choice 
of his party; and the Democratic minority itself cordially 
united to make his election unanimous. All this came en- 
tirely without solicitation from him for such an honor. 

At an informal reception held in the Capitol at Columbus, the 

evening after his election, General Garfield was called upon for 

a speech. In response, he made a brief and appropriate addrc.^^.-;. 

The following is an extract therefrom : 
20 



306 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

" Fellow-Citizens: — I should be a great deal more than a man, or a 
great deal less than a man, if I were not -extremely gratified by this mark 
of your kindness you have shown me in recent days. I did not expect 
ally such meeting as tliis. I knew there was a greeting awaiting me, but 
I did not expect so cordial, generous, and general a greeting, without 
distinction of party, without distinction of interests, as I have received 
here to-night. And you will allow me in a moment or two to speak of 
the memories this chamber awakens. 

"I recognize the importance of the place to which you have elected 
me, and I should be base if I did not also recognize the great man whom 
you have elected me to succeed. I say for him, Ohio has had few larger- 
minded, broader-minded men in the records of our history than that of 
Allen G. Thurman. Differing widely from him as I have done in poli- 
tics, and do, I recognize him as a man high in character and great in in- 
tellect; and I take this occasion to refer to what I have never before 
referred to in public — that many years ago, in the storm of party fight- 
ing, when the air was filled with all sorts of missiles aimed at the charac- 
ter and reputation of public men, when it was even for his party interest 
to join the general clamor against me and my associates, Senator Thurman 
said in public, in the campaign, on the stump, — where men are as likely 
to say unkind things as at any place in the world, — a most generous and 
earnest word of defense and kindness for me, which I shall never forget 
as long as I live. I say, moreover, that the flowers that bloom over the 
garden wall of party politics are the sweetest and most fragrant that bloom 
in the gardens of this world ; and where we can early pluck them and 
enjoy their fragrance, it is manly and delightful to do so. 

"And now, gentlemen of the General Assembly, without distinction of 
party, I recognize this tribute and compliment made to me to-night. 
Whatever my own course may be in the future, a large share of the hi- 
spiration of my future public life will be drawn from this occasion and 
these surroundings, and I shall feel anew the sense of obligation that I 
owe to the State of Ohio. Let me venture to point a single sentence in 
regard to that work. During the twenty years that I have been in pub- 
lic life, almost eighteen of it in the Congress of the United States, I have 
tried to do one thing. Whether I was mistaken or otherwise, it has been 
the plan of my life to follow my convictions at Avhatever personal cost to 
myself. I have represented for many years a district in Congress whose 
approbation I greatly desired ; but though it may seem, perhaps, a little 



THE NOONTIDE.— SENATOR, 307 

egotistical to say it, I yet desired still more the approbation of one per- 
son, and his name is Garfield. He is the only man that I am com- 
pelled to sleep with, and eat with, and live with, and die with ; and if I 
could not have his approbation, I shoidd have bad companionship. And 
in this larger constituency which has called me to represent them now, I 
can only do what is true to my best self, applying the same rules. And 
if I should be so unfortunate as to lose the confidence of this larger con- 
stituency, I must do what every other fair-minded man has to do — carry 
his political life in his hand and take the consequences. But I must 
follow what seems to me to be the only safe rule of my life ; and with 
that view of the case, and with that much personal reference, I leave 
the subject. 

" Thanking you again, fellow-citizens, members of the General Assem- 
bly, Eepublicans and Democrats — all, party man as I am, — thanking you 
both for what you have done and for this cordial and manly greeting, I 
bid you good-night." 



308 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 



CHAPTER IX. 

GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 

IT is now appropriate to consider somewhat in extenso the 
claims of James A. Garfield to be regarded as a statesman. It 
must needs be in the life of every public man, more particularly 
in the life of a Congressman, and more particularly still in the life 
of him who has risen to the rank of leader of the House, that he 
speak much on questions of passing interest. Many of the topics 
which engage his attention flit away Avith the occasion which gave 
them birth. They are the issues of the day, creatures perhaps of 
excitement, may be of prejudice, certainly of partisanship. Hence 
in the history of the life of a public man, many paragraphs will be 
found which merely recount the battles fought and victories won 
in the ordinary contests of the arena. 

In the most marked contrast with this, however, is another class 
of questions which rise to the level of perpetual interest, aifecting 
not only the destinies of the hour, but pregnant with the fate of the 
future. Not questions of the day are these, passing like a shadow 
over the landscape of current events; but shining rather like those 
orbs from whose disks the effulgence is shed which makes shadows 
possible. Albeit, there are themes of statesmanship vitally affecting 
the life of the nation ; and only he, who in the heated arena of 
public life shows himself able to grapple with such problems, is 
worthy of the name of statesman. 

Was James A. Garfield a statesman? In considering this ques- 
tion, and finding therefor a fitting answer, it is necessary clearly to 
understand what are the leading themes of American statesman- 
ship. Perhaps a fair analysis of this great question will show that 
those topics of public discussion which rise to the dignity of ques- 
tions of statesmanship will present about four leading heads: 

I. Questions affecting the nationality of the United States. 



GKEAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 309 

II. Questions affecting the revenue and expenditures of the 
United States. 

III. Questions affecting the financial and monetary systems of 
the United States. 

IV. Questions concerning the general character and tcndencv of 
American institutions. 

If it be shown that James A. Garfield proved himself able to 
grasp and discuss any or all of the great questions falling under 
this comprehensive classification, in such a manner as to throw new 
light upon them, to fix the status of public opinion regarding them, 
and to that extent to build more securely than hitherto the sub- 
«tructure of American greatness, then indeed is he w'orthy of the 
name of statesman. Let us then, Avithout fear or partiality, apply 
the crucial test to Garfield's public life, and see whether indeed he 
is the peer and fit companion for the great names of our history — 
for Hamilton, and Adams, and AVebster, and Sumner, and Chase. 

Before beginning this discussion, however, it will be necessary 
to remind the reader, that in considering the claims of Garfield to 
the rank of statesman under the outline presented above, the chrono- 
logical order of the narrative will be broken up, and such a group- 
ing made of his public speeches and papers as will best ilhis- 
trate his views and establish his rank among the great men of our 
country. 

First, then, as to questions affecting the nationality of tho 
United States. What is the record of him whose life is here re- 
counted concerning those great and vital themes upon which rests 
our perpetuity as a nation? Three utterances, his earliest, his lat- 
est, and his most characteristic, must be taken as representatives 
of the entire class. 

On February 1, 1^60, Ixing thirty-five years of age, he presented 
his views on the general question of the restoration of the States 
lately in rebellion: 

Tins IS A NATION. 

"The word 'State', as it has been used by gentlemen in this discus- 
sion, has two meanings, as perfectly distinct as th()U<:h (htferent words 
hud been used to express them. The confusion ari.-^ing from applying 



310 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

the same word to two different and dissimilar objects, has had very much 
to do with the diverse conclusions which gentlemen have reached. They 
have given us the definition of a ' state ' in the contemplation of public 
or international law, and have at once applied that definition and the con- 
clusions based upon it, to the States of the American Union and the effects 
of war upon them. Let us examine the two meanings of the word, 
and endeavor to keep them distinct in their application to the questions 
before us. 

"Phillimore, the great English publicist, says: 'For all the purposes 
of international law, a state (demos, civitas, volk) may be defined to be a 
people permanently occupying a fixed territory, bound together by common 
laws, habits, and customs, into one body-politic, exercising through the 
medium of an organized government, independent sovereignty and con- 
trol over all persons and things within its boundaries, capable of making 
war and peace, and of entering into all international relations with the 
other communities of the globe.' — Phillimore's Intematlonal Law, vol. i, 
sec. 65. 

"Substantially the same definition may be found in Grotius, book one, 
chapter one, section fourteen ; in Burlamaqui, volume two, part one, 
chapter four, section nine; and in Vattel, book one, chapter one. The 
primary point of agreement in all these authorities is, that in contem- 
plation of international law a state is absolutely sovereign, acknowledg- 
ing no superior on earth. In that sense the United States is a state, a 
sovereign state, just as Great Britain, France, and Russia are states. 

"But what is the meaning of the word State as applied to Ohio or 
Alabama? Is either of them a state in the sense of international law? 
They lack all the leading requisites of such a state. They are only the 
geographical subdivisions of a state ; and though endowed by the people 
of the United States with the rights of local self-government, yet in all 
their external relations their sovereignty is completely destroyed, being 
merged in the supreme Federal Government. — HallecFs International Law, 
sec. 16, page 71. 

" Ohio can not make war; can not conclude peace ; can not make a treaty 
with any foreign government, can not even make a compact with her sis- 
ter States; can not regulate commerce; can not coin money; and has no 
flag. These indispensable attributes of sovereignty, the State of Ohio 
does not possess, nor does any other State of the Union. We call them 
States for want of a better name. We call them States, because the 



GREAT QL^ESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 311 

original Thirteen had been so designated before the Constitution wa? 
formed, but that Constitution destroyed all the sovereignty which those 
Stiites were ever supposed to possess in reference to external affairs. 

"I submit, Mr. Speaker, that the five great publicists— Grotius, Puf- 
fendorf, Byukershoek, Burlamaqui, and Vattel, who have been so often 
quoted in this debate, and all of whom wrote more than a quarter of a 
century, and some nearly two centuries before our Constitution Avas 
formed, can hardly be quoted as good authorities in regard to the nature 
and legal relationships of the component States of the American Union. 

"Even my colleague from the Columbus District [Mr. Shellabarger], 
in his very able discussion of this question, spoke as though a State of 
this Union was tlie same as a state in the sense of international law, 
with certain qualities added. I think he must admit that nearly all the 
leading attributes of such a state are taken from it when it becomes a 
State of the Union. 

"Several gentlemen, during this debate, have quoted the well known 
doctrine of international law, ' that war annuls all existing compacts and 
treaties between belligerents ;' and they have concluded, therefore, that 
our war has broken the Federal bond and dissolved the Union. This 
would be true, if the rebel States were states in the sense of interna- 
tional law — if our Government were not a sovereign nation, but only a 
league between sovereign states. I oppose to this conclusion the unan- 
swerable proposition that this is a nation; that the rebel States are not 
sovereign states, and therefore their failure to achieve independence was 
a failure to break the Federal bond— to dissolve the Union 

"In view of the peculiar character of our Government, in what condi- 
tion did the war leave the rebel States?" 

He argued that by the admission of a State to the Union, the 
laws of the United States were extended to it. A State might 
violate one of these laws, but could not annul it. Each rebel State 
exerted every power to break away from these laws, but was unalde 
to destroy or invalidate one of them. Each rebel State let go of 
the Union, but the Union did not let go of it : 

"Let the stars of heaven illustrate our constellation of States. When 
God launched the planets upon their celestial pathway. He bound them 
all by the resistless power of attraction to the central sun, around which 



312 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

they revolved in their appointed orbits. Each may be swept by storms, 
may be riven by lightnings, may be rocked by earthquakes, may be de- 
vastated by all the terrestrial forces and overwhelmed in ruin, but far away 
in the everlasting depths the sovereign sun holds the turbulent planet in 
its place. This earth may be overwhelmed until the high hills are cov- 
ered by the sea ; it may tremble with earthquakes miles below the soil, 
but it must still revolve in its appointed orbit. So Alabama may over- 
whelm all her municipal institutions in ruin, but she can not annul the 
omnipotent decrees of the sovereign people of the Union. She must be 
held forever in her orbit of obedience and duty. » 

"Now, let us inquire how the surrender of the military power of the 
rebellion affected the legal condition of those States. When the rebellion 
collapsed, and the last armed man of the Confederacy surrendered to 
our forces, I affirm that there was not in one of those States a single 
government that we did or could recognize. There was not in one of 
those States, from governor down to constable, a single man whom we 
could recognize as authorized to exercise any official function whatever. 
They had formed governments alien and hostile to the Union. Not only 
had their officers taken no oaths to support the Constitution of the 
United States, but they had heaped oath upon oath to destroy it. 

"I ^0 further. I hold that there were in those States no constitutions 
of any binding f)rce and effect; none that we could recognize. A con- 
stitution, in this case, can mean nothing less than a constitution of 
government. A constitution must constitute something, or it is no 
constitution. When we speak of the constitution of Alabama, we mean 
the constitution of the government of Alabama. When the rebels sur- 
rendered, there remained no constitution in Alabama, because there 
remained no government. Those States reverted into our hands by 
victorious war, with every municipal right and every municipal authority 
utterly and completely swept away." 

After citing from the highest authorities on the laws of war, he 
sums up the legal status of the rebellious states as follows : 

" 1. That, by conquest, the United States obtained complete control 
of the rebel territory. 

" 2. That every vestige of municipal authority in those States was, by 
secession, rebellion, and the conquest of the rebellion, utterly destroyed. 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 313 

"3. That the state of war did not terminate with the actual cessation 
of hostilities, but that, under the laws of war, it was the duty of the 
President, as comrDauder-in-chief, to establish governments over the con- 
quered people of the insurgent States, which governments, no matter 
what may be their form, are really military governments, deriving their 
sole power from the President. 

"4. That the governments thus established, are valid while the state 
of Avar continues and until Congress acts in the case. 

"5. That it belongs exclusively to the legislative authority of the 
Government to determine the political status of the insurgent States, 
either by adopting the governments the President has established, or by 
permitting the people to form others, subject to the approval of Con- 
gress. 

"It was time for Congress to act. That action should recognize, first, 
the stupendous facts of the war. By tlie Emancipation Proclamation we 
not only declared the slaves free, but pledged the faith of the nation to 
' maintain their freedom.' AVhat is freedom ? It is no mere negative ; 
no mere privilege of not being chained, bought and sold, branded or 
scourged. It is a tangible realization of the truths that ' all men are 
created free and equal,' and that the sanction of just government is the 
* consent of the governed.' 

"These truths can never be realized until each man has a right to be 
heard in all matters concerning himself .... 

" I remember an incident in the history of the eastern church, as re- 
corded by Gibl)on, volume two, chapter twenty-eight, which illustrates 
the power that slavery has exercised among us. The Christians of 
that day, under the lead of Theophilus, undertook to destroy the heathen 
temples. Gibbon says: 

"'Theophilus proceeded to demolish the temple of Serapis without 
any other difficulties than those which he found in the weight and solid- 
ity of the materials, but tliese obstacles proved so insuperable that ho 
was obliged to leave the foundations and to content himself with reducing 
the edifice itself to a heap of rubbish, a part of which was soon after- 
ward cleared away to make room for a church, erected in honor of the 
Christian martyrs. 

" ' The colossal statue of Serapis was involved in the ruin of his tem- 
ple and religion. A great number of plates of different metals, arti- 
ficially joined together, composed the majestic figure of the deity, who 



/ 314 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

touched on either side the walls of the sanctuary. The aspect of Serapis, 
his sitting posture, and the scepter, which he bore in his left hand, were 
extremely similar to the ordinary representations of Jupiter. He was 
distinguished from Jupiter by the basket, or bushel, which was placed 
on his head, and by the emblematic monster which he held in his right 
hand, the head and body of a serpent branching into three tails, which 
were again terminated by the triple heads of a dog, a lion, and a 
wolf. It was confidently affirmed that if any impious hand should dare 
to violate the majesty of the god, the heavens and earth would instantly 
return to the original chaos. An intrepid soldier, animated by zeal, and 
armed with a weighty battle-ax, ascended the ladder, and even the Chris- 
tian multitude expected with some anxiety the event of the combat. He 
aimed a vigorous stroke against the cheek of Serapis ; the cheek fell to 
the ground ; the thunder was still silent, and both the heavens and 
the earth continued to preserve their accustomed order and tranquillity. 
The victorious soldiei- repeated his blows, the huge idol was overthrown 
and broken in pieces, and the limbs of Serapis were ignominiously 
dragged through the streets of Alexandria. His mangled cai-cass was 
burnt in the amphitheater amid the shouts of the populace, and many 
persons attributed their conversion to this discovery of the impotence of 
their tutelary deity.' 

" So slavery sat in our national Capitol. Its huge bulk filled the tem- 
ple of our liberty, touching it from side to side. Mr. Lincoln, on the 1st 
of January, 1863, struck it on the cheek, and the faithless and unbeliev- 
ing among us expected to see the fabric of our institutions dissolve into 
chaos because their idol had fallen. He struck it again ; Congress and 
the States repeated the blow% and its unsightly carcass lies rotting in 
our streets. The sun shines in the heavens brighter than before. Let 
us remove the carcass and leave not a vestige of the monster. We shall 
never have done that until we have dared to come up to the spirit of the 
Pilgrim covenant of 1620, and declare that all men shall be consulted in 
regard to the disposition of their lives, liberty, and property. The Pil- 
grim fathers proceeded on the doctrine that every man was supposed to 
know best what he wanted, and had the right to a voice in the disposi- 
tion of himself." 

A second fact to be recognized was that 7,000,000 white men 
were waiting to have their case adjudged and their political status 
fixed. 



/f4" 

GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 315 ^ 

"As iQ)fer&on$ we must see to it that hereafter personal liberty and per- 
sonal rights are placed in the keeping of the nation ; that tlic right to 
life, liberty, and property are to be guaranteed to citizens in reality, and 
not left to the caprice of mobs and contingencies of local legislation. 
, , , . As to States, the burden of proof rests on each one of them, 
to show whether it is fit to enter the Federal circle in full communion of 
privileges, ^len can not change their hearts — love what they hated, 
and hate what they loved — upon the issue of a battle; but our duty is 
to demand that before we admit them they shall give sufficient assurance 
that, whatever they believe or wish, their action in the future shall be 
such as loyal men can approve." 

How far docs that speech differ from the reconstruction policy 
actually adopted? 

Thirteen years later, on June 27, 1879, the pending bill being 
one for the appropriations for United States marshals, General 
Garfield said : 

" Mr. Chairman : ' To this favor ' it has come at last. Tlie great 
fleet that set out on the 18th of March, with all its freightage and arma- 
ment, is so shattered that now all the valuables it carried are end)arked 
in this little craft, to meet whatever fate the sea and the storm may ofier. 
This little bill contains the residuum of almost every thing that has been 
the subject of controversy at the present session. I will not discuss it in 
detail, but will speak only of its central feature, and especially of the 
opinions which the discussion of that feature has brought to the surface 
during the present session. The majority in this Congress have adopted 
what I consider very extreme and dangerous opinions on certain impor- 
tant constitutional questions. They have not only drift(!d back t(^ their 
old attitude on the sulyect of State Sovereignty, but they have pushed 
that doctrine much further than most of tlieir predecessors ever went be- 
fore, except during the period immediately preceding the late war. 

"Let me summarize them: First, there are no national elections; 
second, the United States has no voters; third, the States have the exclu- 
sive right to control all elections of members of Congress; fourth, the, 
senators and representatives in Congress are State officers, or, as they 
have been called during the present session, 'embassadors' or 'agents of 
the State; fifth, the United Stiites has no authority to keep the jX'acc any- 
where within a State, and, in fact, has no peace to keep; sixth, tho 



316 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

United States is not a Nation endowed with sovereign power, but is a con- 
iederacy of States ; seventh, the States are sovereignties possessing inherent 
supreme powers; they are older than the Union, and as independent 
sovereignties the state governments created the Union and determined 
and limited the powers of the General Government, 

" These declarations embody the sura total of the constitutional doc- 
trines which the Democracy has avowed during this extra session of Con- 
gress. They form a body of doctrines which I do not hesitate to say are 
more extreme than was ever before held on this subject, except, perhaps, 
at the very crisis of secession and rebellion. 

" Firmly believing that these doctrines and attempted practice of the 
present Congress are erroneous and pernicious, I will state briefly the 
counter-propositions : 

"I affirm : first, that the Constitution of the United States was not cre- 
ated by the governments of the States, but was ordained and established 
by the only sovereign in this country — the common superior of both the 
States and the Nation — the people themselves ; second, that the United 
States is a Nation, having a government whose powers, as defined and 
limited by the Constitution, operate upon all the States in their corporate 
capacity and upon all the people ; third, that by its legislative, executive, 
and judicial authority the Nation is armed with adequate power to enforce 
all the provisions of the Constitution against all opposition of individuals 
or of States, at all times and all places within the Union. 

" These are broad propositions ; and I take the few minutes remaining 
to defend them. The constitutional history of this country, or, rather, 
the history of sovereignty and government in this country, is comprised 
in four sharply defined epochs : 

" First. Prior to the 4th day of July, 1776, sovereignty, so far as it 
can be affirmed of this country, was lodged in the crown of Great Britain. 
Every member of every colony (the colonists were not citizens, but sub- 
jects) drew his legal rights from the crown of Great Britain. ' Every 
acre of land in this country was then held mediately or immediately by 
grants from that crown,' and * all the civil authority then existing or ex- 
ercised here flowed from the head of the British empire.' 

" Second. On the 4th day of July, 1776, the people of these colonies, 
asserting their natural inherent right as sovereigns, withdrew the sov- 
ereignty from the crown of Great Britain, and reserved it to themselves. 
In so far as they delegated this national authority at all, they delegated 



fi/^ 



GKEAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERO. 317 

it to the Contineutal Congress assembled at Philadelphia. That Con- 
gress, by general consent, became the supreme government of this 
country — executive, judicial, and legislative in one. During the Avhole 
of its existence it wielded the supremo power of the new Nation. 

"Third. On the 1st day of March, 1781, the same sovereign power, 
the people, withdrew the authority from the Continental Congress, and 
lodged it, so far as they lodged it at all, with the Confederation, which, 
though a league of States, was declared to be a i:)erpetual union. 

" Fourth. When at last our fathers found the Confederation too weak 
and inefficient for the purposes of a great nation, they abolished it, and 
lodged the national authority, enlarged and strengthened by new powers, 
in the Constitution of the United States, where, in spite of all assaults, it 
still remains. All these great acts were done by the only sovereign in 
this Kepublic, the people themselves. 

"That no one may charge that I pervert history to sustain my own 
theories, I call attention to the fact that not one of the colonies declared 
itself free and independent. Neither Virginia nor INIassachusetts threw 
off its allegiance to the British crown as a colony. The great declaration 
was made not even by all the colonies as colonies, but it was made in 
the name and by authority of ' aU the good people of the colonies ' as 
one people. 

" Mr, Chairman, the dogma of State Sovereignty, which has re-awak- 
ened to such vigorous life in this chamber, has borne such bitter fruits 
and entailed such suffering upon our people that it deserves more ^lar- 
ticular notice. It should be noticed that the word 'sovereignty' can not 
be fitly applied to any government in this country. It is not found in 
our constitution. It is a feudal word, born of the despotism of the 
Middle Ages, and was unknown even in imperial Rome. A ' sovereign ' 
is a person, a prince, who has subjects that owe him allegiance. There 
is no one paramount sovereign in the United States. There is no person 
here who holds any title or authority whatever, except the official 
authority given him by law. Americans are not subjects, but citizens. 
Our only sovereign is the whole people. To talk about the 'inherent 
sovereignty' of a corporation — an artificial person — is to talk nonsense; 
and we ought to reform our habit of speech on that subject. 

"But what do gentlemen mean when they tell us that a State is sov- 
ereign? What does sovereignty mean in its accepted use, but a politi- 
cal corporation having no superior? Is a State of this Union such a 



4 318 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

corporation? Let us test it by a few examples drawn from the Consti- 
tution. No State of this Union can make war or conchide a peace. 
Without the consent of Congress it can not raise or support an army or 
a navy. It can not make a treaty with a foreign power, nor enter into 
any agreement or compact with another State. It can not levy imposts 
or duties on imports nor exports. It can not coin money. It can not 
regulate commerce. It can not authorize a single ship to go into com- 
mission anywhere on the high seas ; if it should, that ship would he seized 
as a pirate or confiscated by the laws of the United States. A State can 
not emit bills of credit. It can enact no law which makes any thing but 
gold and silver a legal tender. It has no flag except the flag of the 
Union. And there are many other subjects on which the States are for- 
bidden by the Constitution to legislative. 

" How much inherent sovereignty is left in a corporation which is thus 
shorn of all these great attributes of sovereignty ? 

"But this is not all. The Supreme Court of the United States may 
declare null and void any law or any clause of the constitution of a State 
which happens to be in conflict with the Constitution and laws of the 
United States. Again, the States appear as plaintiffs and defendants be- 
fore the Supreme Court of the United States. They may sue each other; 
and, until the Eleventh Amendment was adopted, a citizen might sue a 
State. These ' sovereigns' may all be summoned before their common 
superior to be judged. And yet they are endowed with supreme inherent 
sovereignty ! 

"Again, the government of a State may be absolutely abolished by 
Congress, in case it is not reimblican in form. And, finally, to cap the 
climax of this absurd pretension, every right possessed by one of these 
'sovereign' States, every inherent sovereign right, excej)t the single right 
to equal representation in the Senate, may be taken away, without its 
consent, by the vote of two-thirds of Congress and three-fourths of the 
States. But, in spite of all these disabilities, we hear them paraded as 
independent, sovereign States, the creators of the Union and the dictators 
of its powers. Hoav inherently 'sovereign' must be that State west of 
the Mississippi which. the Nation bought and paid for with the public 
money, and permitted to come into the Union a half century after the 
Constitution was adopted! And yet we are told that the States are in- 
herently sovereign and created the National Government. 

" The dogma of State Sovereignty in alliance with chattel slavery made 



GEEAT QUESTIONS AND GEEAT ANSWEES. 319 

its appeal to tliat court of last resort where the laws are silent, and where 
kings and nations appear in arms for judgment. In that awful court of 
war two questions were tried: Shall slavery live? And is a State so sov- 
ereign that it may nullify the laws and destroy the Union ? These two 
questions were tried on the thousand battle-fields of the war ; and if war 
ever 'legislates,' as a leading Democrat of Ohio once wisely affirmed, 
then our war legislated finally upon those subjects, and determined, be- 
yond all controversy, that slavery should never again live in this Repub- 
lic, and that there is not sovereignty enough in any State to authorize its 
people either to destroy the Union or nullify its laws." 

Ten years ago a biographer Avho loved Garfield and cared for 
his fame would have omitted the speech from which we are 
about to give extracts. It is, however, no secret that, in 1871, 
General Garfield split with his party upon what was known in 
contemporary politics as "The Force Bill." This bill was 
drawn, under the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment, to 
protect the Republicans of the Southern States from outrage 
and murder. The President had laid before Congress a most 
terrible state of affairs. The Ku-Ivlux Klan, that bloody and 
mysterious organization, which was the terror of loyal men, 
and the guilty perpetrator of unnumbered crimes, thrust its 
hideous head into the face of the men who had fought for the 
Union. Murder, ostracism, incendiarism, bull-dozing, intim- 
idation, ballot-box stuflSng, and a thousand other outrages 
were committed. The best picture of the time is in " The 
Fool's Errand." These things, perhaps, (we do not say so) 
magnified by fear, hate, and political rancor, were too much 
for the Republican Congress and the men who had worn the 
blue under Southern skies. There was terrible bitterness. 
Revenge darkened the jSTorthern heart. The majority in Con- 
gress resolved to clutch the demon's throat with the iron grip 
of law. In a former chapter we spoke of the battle as an ex- 
perience, and how it perpetually reproduced itself in the mind 
of its participants. The illustration of that is found in the 
attitude of President Grant and the soldier majority in Con- 
gress at the time of which we are writing. The "Force Bill" 



/ 320 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

Avas really a tremendous battery. It was surrounded witli sul- 
phurous smoke, and was as grim as death. 

But to the rule General Garfield was an exception. At the 
close of the war, he said, we passed into another political 
epoch. He believed in the Nation, but the cahii balance of 
his mind refused assent to any extreme measure. There was 
no wavering on the supremacy of the Nation. But after all 
this was a Republic, and despotism, the one extreme, was as 
fatal as disunion, the other. General Garfield opposed the ex- 
treme parts of the "Force Bill." lie looked to the future of 
our country as well as the past. "We summarize his elaborate 
speech : 

THE FORCE BILL. 

"Mr. Speaker: lam not able to understand the mental organization 
of the man who cau consider this hill, and the subject of which it treats, 
as free from very great difficulties. He must be a man of very mode- 
rate abilities, whose ignorance is bliss, or a man of transcendant genius 
whom no difficulties can daunt and whose clear vision no cloud obscures. 

"The distinguished gentleman [Mr. Shellabarger] who introduced 
the bill from the committee, very appropriately said that it requires us to 
enter upon unexplored territory. That territory, Mr. Speaker, is the 
neutral ground of all political philosophy ; the neutral ground for which 
rival theories have been struggling in all ages. There are two ideas so 
utterly antagonistic that, when in any nation, either has gained absolute 
and complete possession of that neutral ground, the ruin of that nation 
has invariably followed. The one is that despotism which swallows and 
absorbs all power in a single-central government; the other is that ex- 
treme doctrine of local sovereignty which makes nationality impossible, 
and resolves a general government into anarchy and chaos. It makes 
but little difference, as to the final result, which of these ideas drives the 
other from the field ; in either case ruin follows. 

"The result exhibited by the one was seen in the Amphictyonic and 
Achoean leagues of ancient Greece, of which Madison, in the twentieth 
number of the Federalist, says: 

1 " ' The inevitable result of all was imbecility in the government, dis- 
cord among the provinces, foreign influences and indignities, a precarious 
existence in peace, and peculiar calamities in war.' 



GKEAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 321 x 

"This is a fitting description of all nations which have carried the doc- 
trine of local self-government so far as to exclude the doctrine of nation- 
ality. They were not nations, but mere leagues, bound together by com- 
mon consent, ready to fall to pieces at the demand of any refractory 
member. The opposing idea was never better illustrated than when 
Louis XIV. entered the French Assembly, booted and spurred, and girded 
with the sword of ancestral kings, and said to the Deputies of France : 
' The State ! I am the State ! ' 

" Between these opposite and extreme theories of government, the peo- 
ple have been tossed from century to century ; and it has been only when 
these ideas have been in reasonable equipoise, when this neutral ground 
has been held in joint occupancy, and usurped by neither, that popular 
liberty and national life have been possible. How many striking illus- 
trations of this do we see in the history of France ! The deposition of 
Louis XIV., followed by the Reign of Terror, when liberty had run mad 
and France was a vast scene of blood and ruin ! We see it again in our 
day. Only a few years ago, the theory of personal government had 
placed in the hands of Napoleon III., absolute and irresponsible power. 
The communes of France were crushed, and local liberty existed no 
loucer. Then followed Sedan and the rest. On the first dav of last 
month, when France was trying to rebuild her ruined Government, 
when the Prussian cannon had scarcely ceased thundering against the 
walls of Paris, a deputy of France rose in the National Assembly and 
moved, as the first step toward the safety of his country, that a com- 
mittee of thirty should be chosen, to be called the Committee of Decen- 
tralization. But it was too late to save France from the fearfal reaction 
from despotism. The news comes to us, under the sea, that on Saturday 
last, the cry was ringing through France: ' Death to the Priests!' and 
' Death to the Rich ! ' and the swords of the citizens of that new repub- 
lic are now wet with each other's blood. 

EQUIPOISE OF OUR GOVERNMENT. 

"The records of time show no nobler or wiser work done by human 
hands than that of our fathers when they framed this Republic. Begin- 
ning in a wilderness world, they wrought unfettered by precedent, un- 
trammeled by custom, unawed by kings or dynasties. With the history 
of other nations before them, they surveyed the new field. In the pro- 
gress of their work they encountered these antagonistic ideas to which I 
21 



22 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

:;ve referred. They attcmptc»l to trace through that neutral ground 
be bounchiry line acrc-^s wliich neither force should pas.<. Tlie nsult 
f their labors is our Constilution and frame of government. I never 
untemplate the result uithout feeling that there was more than mor- 
il wi.sdom in the men who produced it. It has seemed to me that they 
orrowed their thought froni Iliin who constructed the universe and put 

in motion. For nothing more aptly describes the character of our 
republic than the solar system, launched into space by the hand of 
lie Creator, where the central sun i.< the great power around which re- 
ulve all the planets in their apjKjinted orbits. But while the .<un holds 
1 the gra.sp of its attractive power the whole sy.«tem, and imi)arts its 
ght and heat to all, yet each individual planet is under the sway of 
iws peculiar to itself. 

"Under the sway of terrestrial laws, winds blow, waters flow, and all 
le tenantries of the planet live and move. Ho, sir, the States move on 
1 their orbits of duty and obedience, bound to the central Government 
y this Constitution, which is their supreme law, while each State is 
laking laws and regulations of its own, developing its own energies, 
laintiiiniiig its own industries, managing its local affairs in its own way, 
jbject only to the supreme but beneficent control of the Union. "When 
tates Rights ran mad, put on the form of secession, and attempted to 
rag the States out of Union, we .saw the graixi les.sc»ns taught, in all 
lie battles of the late war, that a State could no more be hurled from 
lie Union, without ruin to the Nation, than could a planet be thrown 
:om its orbit without dragging after it, to chaos and ruin, the whole so- 
ir universe. 

" Sir, the great war for the Union has vindicated the centripetal power 
f the Nation, and has exploded, forever I trust, the disorganizing theory 
f State Sovereignty, which slavery attempted to impose upon this country, 
lut we should never forget that there is danger in the opposite direc- 
ion. The destruction, or serious cripj)ling of the principle of local gov- 
rnnient, would be as fatal to liberty as secession woidd have been fatal 
:) the Union. 

"The first experiment which our fathers tried in government-making 
fter the War of Independence was a failure, because the central power 
onferred in the Articles of Confederation was not strong enough. The 
econd, though nobly conceived, became almost a failure, because slavery 
ttempted so to interpret the Constitution as to reduce the nation again 



I 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GEEAT ANSWERS. 323 

to a confederacy, a mere league between sovereign States. But we have 
now vindicated and secured the centripetal power ; let us see that the 
centrifugal force is not destroyed, but that the grand and beautiful equi- 
poise may be maintained. 

" It will not be denied that before the adoption of the last three amend- 
ments, it was the settled interpretation of the Constitution that the pro- 
tection of the life and property of private citizens belonged to the State 
governments entirely. . . , Now three amendments have been added 
to the Constitution, and it will not be denied that each of these amend- 
ments has changed the relation of Congress to the citizens of the States." 

Garfield spoke with his eye on the future: "This debate will 
become historic as the earliest legislative interpretation of the 
Fourteenth Amendment/' he said. He reviewed the debates ac- 
companying the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment. Two 
propositions had been before Congress. The essential parts of the 
one adopted were — 

"The Congress shall have power to enforce by appropriate legislation, 
the following provisions, to wit : 

"No State shall make or enforce any lawAvhich shall abridge the priv- 
ileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor sholl any State 
deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of 
law, nor deny to any person Avithin its jurisdiction the equal protection 
of the laws. 

" And this is the rejected clause: 

"The Congress shall have power to make all laws which may be nec- 
essary and proper to secure to the citizens in these several States equal 
protection in the rights of life, liberty, and property. 

" The one exerts its force directly upon the States, laying restriction 
and limitations upon their power, and enabling Congress to enforce these 
limitations. The other, the rejected proposition, would have brought 
the power of Congress to bear directly upon the citizens, and contained 
a clear grant of power to Congress to legislate directly for the protection 
of life, liberty, and property within the States. The first limited, but 
did not oust the jurisdiction of the State over these subjects. The sec- 
ond gave Congress plenary power to cover the whole subject with its ju- 
risdiction, and, as it seems to me, to the exclusion of the State authorities. 



J 324 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

" Mr. Speaker, unless we ignore both the history and the language of 
these clauses we can not, by any reasonable interpretation, give to the 
section as it stands in the Constitution, the force and effect of the rejected 
clause." 

Then followed an exhaustive discussion of the diiferent clauses 
of the Fourteenth Amendment, after which he passed to the pro- 
visions of the pending bill. Southern outrages had been stated by 
the President to exist. The trouble w^as not unequal laws, but 
their maladministration and denial of protection under them. 
This demanded legislation. But Congress had no power to assume 
original jurisdiction of the matter. It could only define and de- 
clare the offense, and should employ no terms which asserted the 
power of Congress to take jurisdiction, until such denial of rights 
was dearly made. Passing then to the extreme and most objection- 
able parts of the bill he said : 

" But, ]Mr. Speaker, there is one provision in the fourth section which 
appears to nie both unwise and unnecessary. It is proposed not only to 
authorize the suspension of the privileges of the writ o^ habeas corpus, but 
to authorize the declaration of martial law iu the disturbed districts. 

"I do not deny, but I affirm, the right of Congress to authorize the 
suspension of the privileges of the writ of habeas corpus whenever, in cases 
of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it. Such action 
has been, and may again be, necessary to the safety of the Republic; but 
I call the attention of the House to the fact that never but once in the 
history of this Government has Congress suspended the great privileges 
of this writ, and then it was not done until after two years of war had 
closed all the ordinary tribunals of justice in the rebellious districts, and 
the great armies of the Union, extending from Maryland to the Mexican 
line, were engaged in a death-struggle with the armies of the rebellion. 
It was not until the third day of March, 1863, that the Congress of the 
United States found the situation so full of peril as to make it their duty 
to suspend this greatest privilege enjoyed by Anglo-Saxon people. Are 
we ready to say that an equal peril confronts us to-day ? 

"My objections to authorizing this suspension implies no distrust of the 
wisdom or patriotism of the President. I do not believe he would employ 
this power were we to confer it upon him ; and if he did employ it, I do 
not doubt he would use it with justice and wisdom. But what we do on 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 325 

this occasion will be quoted as a precedent hereafter, when other men 
with other purpo.-^es may desire to confer this power on another President 
for purposes that may not aid in securing public liberty and [)ul)lic peace. 
" But this section provides no safeguard for citizens who may be ar- 
rested during the suspension of the writ. There is no limit to the time 
during which men may be held as prisoners. Nothing in the section re- 
quires them to be delivered over to the courts. Nothing in it gives them 
any other protection than the will of the commander who orders their 
arrest." 

" But, sir, this fourth section goes a hundred bow-shots farther than 
any similar legislation of Ck)ngress during the wildest day of the rebel- 
lion. It authorizes the declaration of martial law. We are called upon 
to provide by law for the suspension of all law ! Do gentlemen remem- 
ber what martial law is ? Refer to the digest of opinions of the Judge 
Advocate-General of the United States, and you will find a terse defini- 
tion which gleams like a flash of a sword-blade. The Judge Advocate 
says: 'Martial law is the will of the general who conunands the army.' 
And Congress is here asked to declare martial law. Why, sir, it is the 
pride and boast of England that martial law has not existed in that 
country since the Petition of Right in the thirty-first year of Charles II. 
Three years ago the Lord Chief-Justice of England came down from the 
high court over which he was presiding to review the charge of another 
judge to the grand jury, and he there announced that the power to de- 
clare martial law no longer existed in England. In 1867, the same 
judge, in the case of the Queen vs Nelson, uttered this sentence: 

" 'There is no such law in existence as martial law, and no power in 
the Crown to proclaim it.' 

" In a recent treatise, entitled 77ie Nation, a work of great power and 
research, the author, Mr. Mulford, says: 'The declaration of martial 
law, or the suspension of habeas corpus, is the intermission of the ordi- 
nary course of law, and of the tribunals to which an appeal may be made. 
It places the locality included in its operations no longer under the gov- 
ernment of law. It interrupts the process of rights and the procedure 
of courts and restricts the independence of civil administration. There 
is substituted for these the intention of the individual. To this there is 
in the civil order no formal limitation. In its immediate action it al- 
lows beyond itself no obligation and acknowledges no responsibility. 



326 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

Its command or its decree is the only law; its movement may be secret, 
and its decisions are opened to the inquiry of no judge and the investi- 
gation of no tribunal. There is no positive power which may act, or be 
called upon to act, to stay its caprice or to check its arbitrary career 
since judgment and execution are in its own command, and the normal 
action and administration is suspended and the organized force of the 
whole is subordinate to it.' 

"Sir, this provision means war, or it means nothing; and I ask this 
House whether we are now ready to take this step ? Shall we ' cry havoc 
and let slip the dogs of war?' 

" I have taken a humble part in one war, and I hope I shall always be 
ready to do any duty that the necessities of the country may require of 
me; but I am not willing to talk war or to declare war in advance of 
the terrible necessity. Are there no measures within our reach which 
may aid in preventing war? When a savage war lately threatened our 
AVestern frontiers we sent our Commissioners of Peace in the hope of 
avoiding war. Have we done all in our power to avoid that which this 
section contemplates? I hope the committee will bring a companion 
measure that looks toward peace and enable us to send the olive branch 
with the sword." 

This speech marked the separation of General Garfield from the 
Stalwart wing of the Kepublican party. It was never forgiven nor 
forgotten. It showed his balance of mind, his avoidance of ex- 
tremes. The time wdien he delivered it was one of extremes. It 
was an epoch of reaction. It was verging toward the period when 
Sumner and Adams and Greeley were to forsake the party they 
had helped to create. It was a time when the fierce passions of 
war were beginning to find an opponent in the struggling instinct 
of reunion and peace. It was a time when the great radicals, who 
had fought slavery to its death, were to SAving to the other extreme 
of loving gush and apologetic forgiveness toward a South which 
sat crouching in the Temple of Liberty, still maddened with the 
wild insanity of war. It was a time, on the other hand, when the 
great war leaders, gorged with the bloody spoils of victory, were to 
know no forgiveness, no forgetful ness, but to plant the iron heel of 
despotism upon the prostrate and bleeding foe. In this time of ex- 
tremes General Garfield took the middle course. He remained a 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 327 ^. 

true Republican, but he recoiled from brutalism toward the South. 
Now that the passions of the hour have passed aw'ay, we believe 
that his speech on the enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment 
will stand as the wisest utterance of the times. It rises above the 
level of partisanship to that of statesmanship. In the midst of the 
tempest of popular excitement over Southern outrages he was calm. 
As he afterwards said in his nominating speech at Chicago : 

"It is not the billows, but the calm level of the sea from which all 
heights and depths are measured. When the storm has passed and the 
hour of calm settles on the ocean, when sunlight bathes its smooth sur- 
face, then the astronomer and surveyor takes the level from which he 
measures all terrestrial heights and depths." 

This was the secret of all of Garfield's views. In spite of 
political fears and dogmas, in spite of partisan doubts and dis- 
may, he was right. Therefore, in his ans'wers to the great 
questions affecting the nationality of the United States, James 
A. Garfield is entitled to the historic rank of statesman. 

"\Ye will next inquire to what rank Garfield's utterances on 
questions afifecting the financial and monetary systems of the 
United States belong. It has been noticed that this and the 
succeeding topic formed General Garfield's specialty. In the 
epoch in which he lived they were the paramount themes of 
politics. He himself called the financial question the modern 
political Sphinx. For the last eight years inflation, fiat money, 
greenbacks, have been sung in our ears from every point of 
the compass, in every key and to every tune. Men thought 
it was a new thing. Years before the public clamor. General 
Garfield took his position on the financial question. He fore- 
saw and foretold the experience of the country before the pub- 
lic mind had rolled its heavy eyes toward the subject. We 
claim that on the financial question James A. Garfield was 
ten years ahead of his generation ; that he was a pioneer and 
leader in every sense, in the advance toward the resumption 
of specie payments, and a stable currency. Not in 1874, when 
the first great inflation bill ran its erraitc career, nor in 1876, 



/r;^ 



328 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

nor 1878, when the advocates of paper money had organized 
themselves into a political party, did he come forward with 
arguments on the currency for the iirst time. It was in 18G6 
that he turned the Iirst furrow in Congress. On March 16th 
of that year, he enunciated, in a short hut vigorous speech, 
the principles of sound linance, which in later etibrts he was 
to elaborate and fortify with every argument or authority 
which could appeal to the human understanding. From that 
first position Garfield never receded. Kot for a moment did 
he cease to regard irredeemable and inflated paper currency 
an unmixed evil, and resumption as the main end of the legis- 
lation of the epoch. His speeches on finance cover the en- 
tire field, and are very numerous. From two or three we pre- 
sent copious extracts. On May 15, 1868, he delivered a speech 
which was, and is, a complete manual of the principles of 
sound financial policy : 

" I am aware that financial subjects are dull and uninviting in com- 
parison with those heroic themes which have absorbed the attention of 
Congress for the last five years. To turn from the consideration of 
armies and navies, victories and defeats, to the array of figures which 
exhibits the debt, expenditure, taxation, and industry of the nation, re- 
quires no little courage and self-denial; but to these questions we must 
come, and to their solution Congress, political parties, and all thoughtful 
citizens must give their best eflbrts for many years to come. 

"In April, 1861, there began in this country an industrial revolution, 
not yet completed, as gigantic in its proportions, and as far-reaching in 
its consequences, as the political and military revolution through which 
we have passed. As the first step to any intelligent discussion of the 
currency, it is necessary to examine the character and progress of that 
industrial revolution. 

" The year 1860 was one of remarkable prosperity in all branches of 
business. For seventy years no Federal tax-gatherer had ever been seen 
among the laboring population of the United States. Our public debt 
was less than sixty-five million dollars. The annual expenditures of the 
Government, including interest on the public debt, were less than sixty- 
four million dollars. The revenues from customs alone amounted to six- 
sevenths of the expenditures. The value of our agricultural products for 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 329 

that year amounted to 81,025,000,000. Our cotton crop alone was two 
billion one hundred and fifty-five million pounds, and we supplied to the 
markets of the world seven-eighths of all the cotton consumed. Our 
merchant marine engaged in foreign trade amounted to two million five 
hundred and forty-six thousand two hundred and thirty-seven tons, and 
promised soon to rival the immense carrying trade of England. 

" Let us now observe the effect of the war on the various departments 
of business. From the moment the first hostile gun was fired, the Fed- 
eral and State governments became gigantic consumers. As far as pro- 
duction was concerned, eleven States were completely separated from the 
Union. Two million laborers, more than one-third of the adult popula- 
tion of the Northern States, were withdrawn from the ranks of producers, 
and became only consumers of wealth. The Federal Government be- 
came an insatiable devourer. Leaving out of account the vast sums ex- 
pended by States, counties, cities, towns, and individuals, for the payment 
of bounties, for the relief of sick and wounded soldiers and their families, 
and omitting the losses, which can never be estimated, of property de- 
stroyed by hostile armies, I shall speak only of expenditures which appear 
on the books of the Federal Treasury. From the 30th of June, 1861, to 
the 30th of June, 1865, there were paid out of the Federal Treasury 
33,340,996,211, making an aggregate during these four years of more 
than 8836,000,000 per annum, 

" From the official records of the Treasury Department it appears that, 
from the beginning of the American Revolution in 1775 to the begin- 
ning of the late rebellion, the total expenditures of the Government for 
all purposes, including the assumed war debts of the States, amounted to 
62,250,000,000. The expenditure of four years of the rebellion were 
nearly 81,100,000,000 more than all the other Federal expenses since the 
Declaration of Independence. The debt of England, which had its origin 
in the revolution of 1688, and was increased by more than one hundred 
years of war and other political disasters, had reached in 1793 the sum 
of 81.268,000,000. During the twenty-two years that followed, while 
England was engaged in a life and death struggle with Napoleon (the 
greatest war in history save our own), 83,056,000,000 were added to her 
debt. In our four years of war we spent $300,000,000 more than the 
amount by which England increased her debt in twenty-two years of 
war; almost as much as she had increased it in one hundn-d and twenty- 
five years of war. Now, the enormous demand which this expenditure 



330 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

created for all the products of industry stimulated to an unparalleled 
degree every department of business. The plow, furnace, mill, loom, 
railroad, steamboat, telegraph — all were driven to their utmost capacity. 
Warehouses were emptied; and the great reserves of supply, which all 
nations in a normal state keep on hand, were exhausted to meet the de- 
mands of the great consumer. For many months the Government swal- 
lowed three millions per day of the products of industry. Under the 
pressure of this demand, prices rose rapidly in every department of busi- 
ness. Labor every-where found quick and abundant returns. Old debts 
were canceled, and great fortunes were made. 

"For the transaction of this enormous business an increased amount 
of currency was needed ; but I doubt if any member of this House can 
be found bold enough to deny that the deluge of Treasury notes poured 
upon the country during the war was far greater even than the great de- 
mands of business. Let it not be forgotten, however, that the chief ob- 
ject of these issues was not to increase the currency of the country. 
They were authorized with great reluctance, and under the pressure of 
overwhelming necessity, as a temporary expedient to meet the demands 
of the Treasury. They were really forced loans in the form of Treasury 
notes. By the act of July 17, 1861, an issue of demand notes was au- 
thorized to the amount of $50,000,000. By the act of August 5, 1861, 
this amount was increased §50,000,000 more. By the act of February 
25, 1862, an additional issue of §150,000,000 was authorized. On the 
17th of the same month, an unlimited issue of fractional currency was 
authorized. On the 17th of January, 1873, an issue of $150,000,000 
more was authorized, which was increased $50,000,000 by the act of 
March 3d of the same year. This act also authorized the issue of one 
and two years' Treasury notes, bearing interest at five per cent., to be a 
legal tender for their face, to the amount of §400,000,000. By the act 
of June 30, 1864, an issue of six per cent, compound-interest notes, to 
be a legal tender for their face, was authorized, to the amount of 
§200,000,000. In addition to this, many other forms of paper obligation 
were authorized, which, though not a legal tender, performed many of 
the functions of currency. By the act of March 1, 1862, the issue of an 
unlimited amount of certificates of indebtedness Avas authorized, and 
within ninety days after the passage of the act there had been issued and 
were outstanding of those certificates more than §156,000,000. Of 
course these issues were not all outstanding at the same time, but the 
acts show how great was the necessity for loans during the war. 



GKEAT QUESTIONS AND GEEAT ANSWERS. 331 

"The law which made the vast volume of United States notes a legal 
tender operated as an act of general bankruptcy. The man who loaned 
$1,000 in July, 1861, payable in three years, was compelled by this law 
to accept at maturity, as a full discharge of the debt, an amount of cur- 
rency equal in value to S350 of the money he loaned. Private indebted- 
ness was every-where canceled. Rising prices increased the profits of 
business, but this prosperity was caused by the great demand for products, 
and not by the abundance of paper money. As a means of transacting 
the vast business of the country, a great volume of currency was indis- 
pensable, and its importance can not well be overestimated. But let us 
not be led into the fatal error of supposing that paper money created the 
business or produced the wealth. As well might it be alleged that our 
rivers and canals produce the grain which they float to market. Like 
currency, the channels of commerce stimulate production, but can not 
nullify the inexorable law of demand and supply. 

"]\Ir. Chairman, I have endeavored to trace the progress of our in- 
dustrial revolution in passing from peace to war. In returning from war 
to peace all the conditions were reversed. At once the Government 
ceased to be an all-devouring consumer. Nearly two million able-bodied 
men were discharged from the army and navy and enrolled in the ranks 
of the producers. The expenditures of the Government, which, for the 
fiscal year ending June 30, 1865, amounted to $1,290,000,000, were re- 
duced to 6520,000,000 in 1866; to $346,000,000 in 1867; and, if the 
I'etrenchment measures recommended by the Special Commissioner of the 
Eevenue be adopted, another year will bring them below $300,000,000. 

"Thus during the first year after the war the demands of the Federal 
Government as a consumer decreased sixty per cent. ; and in the second 
year the decrease had reached seventy-four per cent., with a fair pros- 
pect of a still further reduction. 

" The recoil of this sudden change would have produced great financial 
disaster in 1866, but for the fact that there was still open to industry the 
work of replacing the wasted reserves of supply, which, in all countries 
in a healthy state of business, are estimated to be sufficient for two years. 
During 1866, the fall in price of all articles of industry amounted to an 
average of ten per cent. One year ago a table was prepared, at my re- 
quest, by Mr. Edward Young, in the ofiice of the Special Commissioner 
of the Revenue, exhibiting a comparison of wholesale prices at New \ ork 
in December, 1865, and December, 1866. It shows that in ten leading 
articles of provisions there was an average decline of twenty-two per 



332 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

cent., tliougli beef, flour, and other breadstuff's remained nearly station- 
ary. On cotton and woolen goods, boots, shoes, and clothing, the decline 
was thirty per cent. On the products of manufacture and mining, in- 
cluding coal, cordage, iron, lumber, naval stores, oils, tallow, tin, and 
wool, the decline was twenty-five per cent. The average decline on all 
commodities was at least ten per cent. According to the estimates of 
the Special Commissioner of the Revenue in his last report, the average 
decline during 1867 has amounted at least to ten per cent. more. During 
the past two years Congress has provided by law for reducing internal 
taxation $100,000,000 ; and the act passed a few weeks ago has reduced 
the tax on manufactures to the amount of $64,000,000 per annum. The 
repeal of the cotton tax will make a further reduction of $20,000,000. 
State and municipal taxation and expenditures have also been greatly re- 
duced. The work of replacing these reserves delayed the shock and dis- 
tributed its effects, but could not avert the hievitable result. During the 
past two years, one by one, the various departments of industry produced 
a supply equal to the demand. Then followed a glutted market, a fall 
in prices, and a stagnation of business, by which thousands of laborers 
were thrown out of employment. 

"If to this it be added that the famine in Europe and the drought in 
many of the agricultural States of the Union have kept the price of pro- 
visions from falling as other commodities have fallen, we shall have a 
sufficient explanation of the stagnation of business, and the unusual dis- 
tress among our people. 

"This industrial revolution has been governed by laws beyond the 
reach of Congress. No legislation could have arrested it at any stage of 
its progress. The most that could possibly be done by Congress was, to 
take advantage of the prosperity it occasioned to raise a revenue for the 
support of the Government, and to mitigate the severity of its subsequent 
pressure, by reducing the vast machinery of war to the lowest scale pos- 
sible. Manifestly nothing can be more absurd than to suppose that the 
abundance of currency produced by the prosperity of 1863, 1864, and 
1865, or that the want of it is the cause of our present stagnation. 

"In order to reach a satisfactory understanding of the currency ques- 
tion, it is necessary to consider somewhat fully the nature and func- 
tions of money or any substitute for it. 

" The theory of money which formed the basis of the ' mercantile sys- 
tem' of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries has been rejected by 



GKEAT QUESTIONS AND GKEAT ANSWERS. 333 

all leading financiers and political economists for the last seventy-five 
years. That theory asserted that money is Avealth ; that tlie great object 
of every nation should be to increase its amount of gold and silver ; that 
this was a direct increase of national wealth. 

" It is now held as an indisputable truth that money is an instrument 
of trade, and performs but two functions. It is a measure of value and 
a medium of exchange. 

"In cases of simple barter, where no money is used, we estimate the 
relative values of the commodities to be exchanged in dollars and cents, it 
being our only universal measure of value. 

"As a medium of exchange, money is to all business transactions what 
ships are to the transportation of merchandise. If a hundred vessels of 
a given tonnage are just sufficient to carry all the commodities between 
two ports, any increase of the number of vessels will correspondingly de- 
crease the value of each as an instrument of commerce; any decrease 
below one hnndred will correspondingly increase the value of each. 

"The functions of money as a medium of exchange, though more com- 
plicated in their application, are precisely the same in principle as the 
functions of the vessels in the case I have supposed. 

"If we could ascertain the total value of all the exchanges efl^ected in 
this country by means of money in any year, and could ascertain how 
many dollars' worth of such exchanges can be effected in a year by one 
dollar in money, we should know how much money the country needed 
for the business trans^actions of that year. Any decrease below that 
amount Avill correspondingly increase the value of each dollar as an in- 
strument of exchange. Any increase above that amount will correspond- 
ingly decrease the value of each dollar. If that amount be doubled, each 
dollar of the whole mass will perform but half the amount of business it 
did before; will be worth but half its former value as a medium of ex- 
change. 

"Recurring to our illustration: if, instead of sailing vessels, steam 
vessels were substituted, a much smaller tonnage would be required; so, 
if it were found that $500,000,000 of paper, each worth seventy cents 
in gold, were sufficient for the business of the country, it is equally evi- 
dent that §350,000,000 of gold substituted for the paper would perform 
precisely the same amount of business. 

" It should be remembered, also, that any Improvement in the mode 
of transacting business, by which the actual use of money is in part dis- 



334 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

pensed witli, reduces the total amount needed by the country. How 
much has been accomplished in this direction by recent improvements in 
banking may be seen in the operations of the clearing-houses in our 
great cities. 

" The records of the New York Clearing House show that from Oc- 
tober 11, 1853, the date of its establishment, to October 11 , 1867, the ex- 
changes amounted to nearly $180,000,000,000; to effect which, less than 
$8,000,000,000 of money were used, an average of about f)ur per cent.; 
that is, exclianges were made to the amount of $100,000,000 by the pay- 
ment of $4,000,000 of money. 

" It is also a settled principle that all deposits in banks, drawn upon 
by checks and drafts, really serve the purpose of money. 

"The amount of currency needed in the country depends, as we have 
seen, upon the amount of business transacted by means of money. The 
amount of business, however, is varied by many causes which are irregu- 
lar and uncertain in their operation. An Indian war, deficient or 
abundant harvests, an overflow of the cotton lands of the South, a bread 
famine or war in Europe, and a score of such cauf^es entirely beyond 
the reacli of legislation, may make money deficient this year and abun- 
dant next. Tiie needed amount varies also from month to month in the 
same year. More money is required in tlie autumn, when the vast 
products of agriculture are being moved to market, than when the great 
army of laborers are in winter-quarters, awaiting the seed-time. 

" When the money of tlie country is gold and silver, it adapts itself 
to the fluctuations of business without the aid of legislation. If, at any 
time, we have more than is needed, the surplus flows off" to other coun- 
tries through the channels of international commerce. If less, the defi- 
ciency is supplied through the same channels. Thus the monetary 
equilibrium is maintained. So immense is the trade of the world that 
the golden streams pouring from California and Australia in the specie 
circulation, are soon absorbed in the great mas« and equalized throughout 
the world, as the waters of all the rivers are spread upon the surface of 
all the seas. 

"Not so, however, with an inconvertible paper currency. Excepting 
the specie used in the payment of customs and the interest on our public 
debt, we are cut off* from the money currents of the world. Our currency 
resembles rather the waters of an artificial lake, which lie in stagnation 
or rise to full banks at the caprice of the gate-keeper. 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 335 

"Gold and silver abhor depreciated paper money, and will not keep 
company with it. If our currency be more abundant than business 
demands, not a dollar of it can go abroad ; if deficient, not a dollar of 
gold will come in to supply the lack. There is no legislature on earth 
wise enough to adjust such a currency to the wants of the country. 

"Let us examine more minutely the effect of such a currency upon 
prices. Suppose that the business transactions of the country at the 
present time require $350,000,000 in gold. It is manifest that if there 
are just 8350,000,000 of legal-tender notes, and no other money in the 
country, each dollar will perform the full functions of a gold dollar, so 
far as the work of exchange is concerned. Now, business remaining the 
same, let $350,000,000 more of the same kind of notes be pressed into 
circulation. The whole volume, as thus increased, can do no more than 
all the business. Each dollar will accomplish just half the work that a 
dollar did before the increase ; but as the nominal dollar is fixed by law, 
the effect is shown in prices being doubled. It requires two of these 
dollars to make the same purchase that one dollar made before the 
increase. It would require some time for the business of the country to 
adjust itself to the new conditions, and great derangement of values 
would ensue ; but the result would at last be reached in all transactions 
which are controlled by the law of demand and supply. 

"No such change of values can occur without cost. Somebody must' 
pay for it. Wiio pays in this case? We have seen that doubling the 
currency finally results in reducing the purchasing power of each dollar 
one-half; hence eveiy man who held a legal- tender note at the time of 
the increase, and continued to hold it till the full effect of the increase 
was produced, suffered a loss of fifty per cent, of its value; in other 
words, he paid a tax to the amount of half of all the currency in his 
possession. This new issue, therefore, by depreciating the value of all 
the currency, cost the holders of the old issue $175,000,000 ; and if the 
new notes were received at their nominal value at the date of issue, their 
holders paid a tax of $175,000,000 more. No more unequal or unjust 
mode of taxation could possibly be devised. It would be tolerated only 
by being so involved in the transactions of business as to be concealed 
from observation ; but it would be no less real because hidden. 

" But some one may say: 'This depreciation would fall upon capital- 
ists and rich men, who are able to bear it.' 

" If this were true, it would be no les? unjust. But, unfortunately, 



336 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

the capitalists would suffL^r less than any other class. The new issue 
would be paid in the first place in large amounts to the creditors of the 
Government ; it would pass from their hands before the depreciation 
had taken full effect, and, passing down step by step through the ranks 
of middle-men, the dead weight would fall at last upon the laboring 
classes in the increased price of all the necessaries of life. It is well 
known that in a general rise of prices, wages are among the last to rise. 
This principle was illustrated in the report of the Special Commissioner 
of the Revenue for the year 1866. It is there shown that from the 
beginning of the war to the end of 1866, the average price of all commo- 
dities had risen ninety per cent. Wages, however, had risen but sixty 
per cent. A day's labor would purchase but two-thirds as many of the 
necessaries of life as it would before. The wrong is, therefore, inflicted 
on the laborer long before his income can be adjusted to his increased 
expenses. It was, in view of this truth, that Daniel Webster said, in 
one of his ablest speeches : 

" ' Of all the contrivances for cheating the laboring classes of man- 
kind, none has been more effectual than that which deludes them with 
paper money. This is the most effectual of inventions to fertilize the 
rich man's field by the sweat of the poor man's brow. Ordinary tyranny, 
oppression, excessive taxation, these bear lightly on the happiness of the 
mass of the community, compared Avith a fraudulent currency and the 
robberies committed by depreciated paper.' 

"The fraud committed and the burdens imposed upon the people, in 
the case we have supposed, would be less intolerable if all business 
transactions could be really adjusted to the new conditions ; but even 
this is impossible. All debts would be canceled, all contracts fulfilled by 
payment in these notes — not at their real value, but for their face. All 
salaries fixed by law, the pay of every soldier in the army, of every 
sailor in the navy, and all pensions and bounties, would be reduced to 
half their former value. In these cases the effect is only injurious. Let 
it never be forgotten that every depreciation of our currency results in 
robbing the one hundred and eighty thousand pensioners, maimed heroes, 
crushed and bereaved widows, and homeless orphans, who sit helpless at 
our feet. And who would be benefited by this policy? A pretense of 
apology might be offered for it, if the Government could save what the 
people lose. But the system lacks the support of even that selfish and 
immoral consideration. The depreciation caused by the over-issue in the 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 337 

case we have supposed, compels the Government to pay just that per 
cent, more on all the contracts it makes, on all the loans it negotiates, 
on all the supplies it purchases; and to crown all, it must at last redeem 
all its legal-tender notes in gold coin, dollar for dollar. The advocates 
of repudiation have not yet been bold enough to deny this. 

"I have thus far considered the influence of a redundant paper cur- 
rency on the country when its trade and industry are in a healthy and 
normal state. I now call attention to its eftect in producing an unhealthy 
expansion of business, in stimulating speculation and extravagance, and 
in laying the sure foundation of commercial revulsion and wide-spread 
ruin. This principle is too well understood to require any elaboration 
here. The history of all modern nations is full of examples. One of 
the ablest American writers on banks and banking, Mr. Gouge, thus 
sums up the result of his researches : 

" ' The histoi-y of all our bank pressures and panics has been the same 
in 1825, in 1837, and in 1843 ; and the cause is given in these two 
simple words — universal expansion.' 

"There still remains to be considered the effect of depreciated cui*- 
rency on our trade with other nations. By raising prices at home higher 
than they are abroad, imports are largely increased beyond the exports; 
our coin must go abroad ; or, what is far worse for us, our bonds, which 
have also suffered depreciation, and are purchased by foreigners at 
seventy cents on the dollar. During the whole period of high prices 
occasioned by the war, gold and bonds have been steadily going abroad, 
notwithstanding our tariff duties, which average nearly fifty per cent. 
ad valorem. More than five hundred million dollars of our bonds are 
now held in Europe, ready to be thrown back upon us when any war or 
other sufficient disturbance shall occur. No tariff rates short of actual 
prohi])ition can prevent this outflow of gold while our currency is thus 
depreciated. During these years, also, our merchant marine steadily 
decreased, and our ship-building interests were nearly ruined. 

" Our tonnage engaged in foreign trade, which amounted in 1859-'60 
to more than two and a-half million tons, had fallen in 1865-'66 to less 
than one and a-half millions — a decrease of more than fifty per cent. ; 
and prices of labor and material are still too high to enable our ship- 
wrights to compete with foreign builders. 

" From the facts already exhibited in reference to our industrial revo- 
lution, and from the foregoing analysis of the nature and functions of 

currency, it is manifest: 
22 



338 



LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



" 1. That the remarkable prosperity of all industrial enterprises during 
the war was not caused by the abundance of currency, but by the unpar- 
alleled demand for every product of labor. 

" 2. That the great depression of business, the stagnation of trade, the 
* hard times' which have prevailed during the past year, and which still 
prevail, have not been caused by an insufficient amount of currency, but 
mainly by the great falling off of the demand for all the products of labor, 
com})ared with the increased supply since the return from war to peace, 

"I subjoin a table, carefully made up from the official records, showing 
the amount of paper money in the United States at the beginning of each 
year from 1834 to 1868 inclusive. The fraction8 of millions are omitted : 



1834 $ 05,000,000 

1835 104,000,000 

1836 140,000,000 

1837 149,000,000 

1838 116,000,000 

1839 135,000,000 

1840 107,000,000 

1841 107,000,000 

1842 84,000,000 

1843 59,000,000 

1844 75,000,000 

1845 90,000,000 

1846 105,000,000 

1847 106,000,000 

1848 129.000,000 

1849 1 15,000,000 

1850 131,000,000 

1851 155,000,000 



1852 $150,000,000 

1853 146,000,000 

1854 205,000,000 

1855 187,000,000 

1856 190,000,(100 

1857 215,000,000 

1858 135,000,000 

1859 193,000,000 

1860 207,000,000 

1861 202,000,000 

18G2 218,000,000 

1863 529,000,000 

1864 636,000,000 

1865 948,000,000 

1866 919,000,000 

1867 852,000,000 

1868 767,000,000 



"The table I have submitted shows how perfect an index the currency 
is of the healthy or unhealthy condition of business, and that every 
great financial crisis, during the period covered by the table, has been 
preceded by a great increase, and followed by a great and sudden 
decrease, in the volume of paper money. The rim and fall of inercury in 
the barometer is not more surely indicative of an atmos^pheric dorm, than is 
a sudden increase or decrease of currency indicative of financial disaster. 
Within the period covered by the table, there were four great financial and 
commercial crises in this country. They occurred in 1837, 1841, 1854, and 
1857. Oliserve the volume of ])aper currency for those years : On the first 
day of January, 1837, the amount had risen to $149,000,000, an increase 
■of nearly fifty per cent, in three years. Before the end of that year, the 
reckless expansion, speculation, and over-trading which caused the 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 339 

increase, had resulted in terrible collapse ; and on the first of January, 
1838, the volunio was reduced to ^11(>,0()0,000. Wild lands, wliich 
speculation had raised to fifteen and t\vent\' dollars per aciv^, fell to one 
dollar and a-half and two dollars, accompanied hy a corvcsponding de- 
pression in all branches of Ibusiness. Immediately after the crisis of 
1841, tlie bank circulation decreased twenty-five per cent., and by the 
end of 1842 was reduced to $58,500,000, a decrease of nearly fifty per 
cent. 

"At the beginning of 1853 the amount was ^146,000,000. Specula- 
tion and expansion had swelled it to §205,000,000 by the end of that 
year, and thus introduced the crash of 1854. At the begiiniing of 1857 
the paper money of the country reached its highest point of inflation up 
to that time. There were nearly §215,000,000, but at the end of that 
disastrous year the volume had fallen t^) §185,000,000, a decrease of 
nearly forty per cent, in less than twelve months. In the great crashes 
preceding 1837 the same conditions are invariably seen — great expansion, 
followed by a violent collapse, not only in j)aper money, but in loaas and 
discounts ; and those manifestations have always been accompanied by a 
corresponding fluctuation in prices. 

" In the great crash of 1819, one of the severest this country ever 
suffered, there was a complete prostration of business. It is recorded in 
Niles's Regkter for 1820 that, in that year, an Ohio miller sold four bar- 
rels of flour to raise five dollars, the amount of his subscription to that 
paper. Wheat was tAventy cents per bushel, and corn ten cents. About 
the same time Mr. Jefferson wrote to Nathaniel ^Nlacon : 

'"Wc have now no .standard of value. I am agked eighteen dollar.s for a yard 
of broadehith which, when we had (hdlars, I used to get for eigliteen i^liillings.' 

" But there is one quality of such a currency more remarkable than all 
others — its strange power to delude men. The spells and enchantments 
of legendary witchcraft were hardly so wonderful. Most delusions can 
not be repeated ; they lose their power aft(!r a full exposure. Not so with 
irredeemable paper money. From the days of John Law its history has 
been a repetition of the same story, with only this diffcrcjjce: No nation 
now resoits to its use except from overwhelming necessity; but wluiipver 
any nation is fairly embarked, it floats on the<lelusive waves, :ind, like 
the lotus-eating companions of Ulyssr's, wislies to return no mon'. 

" Into this very delusion many of our fellow-citizens and many mem- 
bers of this House have fallen. 



340 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

*' The chief cause of this new-born zeal for paper money is the same 
as that which led a member of the Continental Congress to exclaim : 

"'Do you think, gentlemen, that I will consent to load my constituents with 
taxes, when we can send to the printer and get a wagon-load of money, one quire 
of which will pay for the whole ? ' 

"It is my clear conviction that the most formidable danger with which 
the country is now threatened is a large increase in the volume of paper 
money. • 

"Shall we learn nothing from experience? Shall the warnings of the 
past be unheeded?" 

Here followed a brilliant historical review of the experience of 
the Colonies, of the Continental Congress, and of England, with 
paper money 

" From these considerations it ap{)ears to me that the first step toward 
a settlenicnt of our financial and industrial aH'airs should be to adopt and 
declare to the country a fixed and definite p<jlicy, so that industry rnd 
enterprise may be based upon confidence; so that men may know what 
to expect from the Government; and, above all, that the course of busi- 
ness may be so adjusted that it shall be governed by the laws of trade, 
and not by the caprice of any man or of any political party in or out 
of Congress. 

" On the 10th of February, I introduced a bill which, if it should be- 
come a law, will, I believe, go far toward restoring confidence and giving 
stability to business, and W'ill lay the foundation on which a general finan- 
cial policy may be based, whenever opinions are so harmonized as to make 
a general policy possible. 

"As the bill is short, I will quote it entire, and call attention for a 
few moments to its provisions: 

'"a bill to provide fob a gradual beturn to specie payments. 

" ' Be it enacted by the Senate and Hovse of Representatives of the United States of 
America in Congress assembled: That on and after the first day of December, 1868, 
the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to pay 
gold coin of the United States for any legal-tender notes of the United States, 
which may be presented at the office of the Assistant Treasurer, at New York, at 
the rate of one dollar in gold for one dollar and thirty cents in legal-tender notes. 
On and after the first day of January, 1869, the rate shall be one dollar in gold for 
one dollar and twenty -nine cents in legal-tender notes ; and at the beginning of and 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 341 

during each succeeding month, the amount of legal-tender notes required in ex- 
change for one dollar in gold sliall be one cent less than the amount required dur- 
ing the preceding month, until the exchange becomes one dollar in gold for one 
dolhir in legal-tender notes; and on and after the first day of June, 1871, the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury shall exchange gold for legal-tender notes, dollar for dollar. 
Provided: Tiiat nothing in this act shall be so construed as to authorize the retire- 
ment or cancellation of any legal-tender notes of the United States.' 

******** 

"I do not doubt that, in anticipation of the operation of this mea.sure, 
should it become a law, gold would be at 130, or lower, by the 1st of 
December, and that very little would be asked for from the Treasury, 
in excliange for currency. At the beginning of each succeeding month 
the exchange between gold and greenbacks would be reduced one cent, 
and specie payments would be fully resumed in June, 1871. That the 
country is fully able to resume by that time Avill hardly be denied. 

" With the 8100,000,000 of gold now in the Treasury, and the amount 
received from customs, which averages nearly half a million per day, it 
is not at all probable that we should need to borrow a dollar in order to 
carry out the provisions of the law. 

"But taking the most unfavorable aspect of the case, and supposing 
that the Government should find it necessary to authorize a gold loan, 
the expense would be trifling compared with the resulting benefits to the 
country. The proposed measure would incidentally bring all the national 
banks to the aid of the Government in the work of resumption. The 
banks are required by law to redeem their own notes in greenbacks. 
They now hold in their vaults, as a reserve required by law, 8162,000,000, 
of which sum 8114,000,000 are greenbacks. Being compelled to pay 
the same price for their own notes as for greenbacks, they would grad- 
ually accumulate a specie reserve, and would be compelled to keep 
abreast with the Government in every step of the progress toward le- 
sumption. The necessity of redeeming their own notes would keep their 
circulation nearer home, and w^ould more equally distribute the currency 
of the country which now concentrates at the great money centers, and 
produces scarcity in the rural districts. 

"This measure woidd not at once restore the old national standard of 
value, but it would give stability to business and confidence to business 
men every-where. Every man wlio contracts a debt woidd know what 
the value of a dollar would l)e when the debt became due. The opportu- 
nity now allbrded to Wall Street gamblers to run up and run down the re- 



342 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

lative price of gold and greenbacks would be removed. The element of 
chance, which now vitiates our whole industrial system, would, in great 
part, be eliminated. 

"If this measure be adopted it will incidentally settle several of our 
most troublesome questions. It will end the war between the contrac- 
tionists and the inflationists — a war which, like that of Marias and Sylla, 
may almost prove fatal to the interests of the country, whichever side 
may prevail. The amount of paper money will regulate itself, and may 
he unlimited, so long as every dollar is convertible into specie at the will 
of the holder. 

"The still more difficult question of {)aying our five-twenty bonds 
would be avoided — completely flanked by this measure. The money 
paid to the wounded soldier, and to the soldier's widow, would soon be 
made equal in value to the money paid to all other creditors of the Gov- 
ernment. 

"It will be observed that the bill does not authorize the cancellation 
or retirement of any United States notes. It is Ijelieved that, for a time 
at least, the volume of the currency may safely remain as it now is. 
When the measure has been in force for some time, it will be seen 
whether the increased use of specie for purposes of circulation will not 
allow a gradual reduction of the legal-tender notes. This can be safely 
left to subsequent legislation. It will facilitate the success of this plan 
if Congress will pass a biU to legalize contracts hereafter made for the 
payment of coin. If this be done, many business men will conduct their 
affairs on a specie basis, and thus retain at home much of our gold that 
now goes abroad. 

ENGLISH PRECEDENT. 

"I have not been ambitious to add another to the many financial 
plans proposed to this Congress, much less have I sought to introduce a 
new and untried scheme. On the contrary, I regard it a strong coin- 
mendatiun of this measure, that it is substantially the same as that by 
which Great Britain resumed specie payments, after a suspension of 
nearly a quarter of a century. 

"The situation of England at that time was strikingly similar to our 
present situation. She had just emerged from a great war in which her 
resources had been taxed to the utmost. Business had been expanded, 
and high prices prevailed. Paper money had been issued in unusual 
volume, was virtually a legal-tender, and had depreciated to the extent 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANS^VERS. 343 

of twenty-five pei' cent. Every financial evil from which we now suffer 
prevailed there, and was aggravated by having been longer in operation. 
Plans and theories without end were proposed to meet the many diffi- 
culties of the case. For ten years the TJank of England and the major- 
ity in Parliament vehemently denied that paper money had depreciated, 
notwithstanding the unanswerable report of the Bullion Committee of 
1810, and the undeniable fact that it took twenty -five per cent, more of 
notes than of coin to buy an ounce of gold. 

"Many insisted that paper was a better standard of value than coin. 
Some denounced the attempt to return to specie as unwise, others as im- 
possible. William Cobbett, the famous pamphleteer, announced that he 
would give himself up to be broiled on a gridiron whenever the bank 
should resume cash payments ; and for many years kept the picture of 
a gridiron at the head of his Political Regider, to remind his readers of his 
prophecy. Every phase of the question was discussed by the best minds 
of the kingdom, in and out of Parliament, for more than ten years; and 
in May, 1819, under the lead of liobert Peel, a law was passed fixing the 
time and mode of resumption. 

"It provided that on the 1st of February, 1820, the bank should give, 
in exchange for its notes, gold bullion in quantities not less than sixty 
ounces, at the rate of 81s. per ounce ; that, from the 1st of October, 
1820, the rates should be 79s. 6d.; from the 1st of May, 1822, 79s. lO^d.; 
and on the 1st of May, 1823, the bank should redeem all its notes in 
coin, whatever the amoilnt presented. The passage of the act gave once 
more a fixed and certain value to money ; and business so soon adjusted 
itself to the measure in anticipation, that specie payments were fully re- 
sumed on the 1st of jNIay, 1821, two years before the time fixed by the 
law. Forty-seven years have elapsed since then, and the verdict of his- 
tory has approved the wisdom of the act, notwithstanding the clamor and 
outcry which at first assailed it. So plainly does this lesson apply to us, 
that in the preface to one of the best histories of England, recently pub- 
lished, the author, who is an earnest friend of the United States, says : 

" 'It seems tome that no thoughtful citizen of any nation can read the 
story of the years before and after Peel's bill of 1819, extending over the 
crash of 1825-26, without the strongest desire that such risks and cal- 
amities may be avoided in his own country at any sacrifice. There are 
several countries under the doom of retribution for the license of an in- 
convertible paper currency, and of these the United States are unha])i)ily 



344 lAFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

one. This passage of English history may possibly help to check the 
levity with which the inevital)le 'crash' is spoken of by some, who little 
dream what the horrors and griefs of such a convulsion are. It may do 
more if it should show any considerable number of observers that the 
affiiirs of the economic Avorld are as truly and certainly under the con- 
trol of natural laws as the world of matter without and that of mind 
within.'" 



This speech is remarkable. It is wonderful. Had that re- 
sumption bill become a law, it is possible and probable that the 
panic of 1873, and the long years of distress might have been, if 
not avoided, at least greatly shortened and alleviated. The ar- 
gument never was and never could be improved upon by any one. 
In the light of history that speech was a prophecy. Congress 
procrastinated a return to specie payment. Finally the crash 
came, as he had foretold. Garfield once said, "After the battle of 
arms comes the battle of history." In writing a historical esti- 
mate of the leaders of the epoch which closed with the consum- 
mation of specie payments, the critical historian would rightly 
claim that this speech of General Garfield, in the spring of 1868, 
Jive and a- half years before the panic, must take rank as a triumph 
of statesmanship above every argument, no matter how able or 
eloquent, made after the panic. In this speech Garfield showed his 
conservatism again in favoring the continuation of greenbacks in 
circulation, the very thing which was done over the bitter oppo- 
sition of resumptionists seven years before. 

In the earlier part of the speech he showed the necessity of an 
adjustible volume of currency. With specie this was easy. With 
paper currency the volume could be made adjustable through 
banks. They were the institutions to ease us through the straits 
to resumption. Their mission was more fully elaborated in a 
speech of June 7, 1870. The West and South having an insuffi- 
cient number of banks, and, consequently, lacking the currency of 
checks, drafts, etc., were suffering. To meet this, he presented a 
bill redistributing the banks. His views are what most concern us. 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GEEAT ANSWERS. 345 

CURREXCY AND THE BANKS. 

"I wish first to state a few general propositions touching the subjects 
of trade and its instruments. A few simple principles form the founda- 
tion on which rests the whole superstructure of money, currency, and 
trade. They may be thus briefly stated: 

" First. Money, which is a universal measure of value and a medium 
of exchange, must not be confounded with credit currency in any of its 
forms. Nothing is really money which does not of itself possess the full 
amount of the value which it professes on its face to possess. Length 
can only be measured by a standard which in itself possesses length. 
Weight can only be measured by a standard, defined and recognized, 
which in itself possesses weight. So, also, value can only be measured 
by that which in itself possesses a definite and known value. The pre- 
cious metals, coined and stamped, form the money of the world, because 
when thrown into the melting-pot and cast into bars they will sell in the 
market as metal for the same amount that they will pass for in the 
market as coined money. The coining and stamping are but a certifica- 
tion by the government of the quantity and fineness of the metal 
stamped. The coining certifies to the value, but neither creates it nor 
adds to it. 

''Second. Paper currency, when convertible at the will of the holder 
into coin, though not in itself money, is a title to the amount of money 
promised on its face; and so long as there is perfect confidence that it is a 
good title for its whole amount, it can be used as money in the payment 
of debts. Being lighter and more easily carried, it is for many purposes 
more convenient than money, and has become an indispensable substi- 
tute for money throughout all civilized countries. One quality which it 
must possess, and without which it loses its title to be called money, is 
that the promise written on its face must be good and be kept good. 
Tiie declaration on its face must be the truth, the whole truth, and 
nothing but the truth. If the promise has no value, the note itself is 
worthless. If the promise affords any opportunity for doubt, uncertainty, 
or delay, the note represents a vague uncertainty, and is measured only 
by remaining faith in the final redemption of the promise. 

" Third. Certificates of credit under whatever form, are among the 
most efficient instruments of trade. The most common form of these cer- 
tificates is that of a check or draft. The bank is the institution through 
which the check becomes so powerful an instrument of exchange. The 



346 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

check is comparatively a modern invention, whose functions and im- 
portance are not yet fully recognized. It may represent a deposit of coin 
or of paper currency, convertible or inconvertible ; or may, as is more 
frequently the case, represent merely a credit, secured by property in 
some form, but not by money. The check is not money; yet, for tlie 
time being, it performs all the functions of money in the payment of 
debts. No greater mistake can be made than to suppose that the effect- 
ive value of currency is not directly increased by the whole amount of* 
cliecks in circulation. 

"I would not for a moment lose sight of the great first necessity of 
all exchanges, that they be measured by real money, the recognized 
money of the world; nor of that other necessity next in importance, 
that bank notes or treasury notes should re])reseut real money; should 
be of uniform value throughout the country, and should be sufficient in 
amount to effect all those exchanges in which paper money is actually 
used. I would keep constantly in view both these important factors. But 
that is a superficial and incomplete plan of legislation which does not in- 
clude, in its provisions for the safe and prompt transaction of business, 
those facilities which modern civilization has devised, and which have so 
largely superseded the use of both coin and paper money. 

"The bank has becoine the indispensable agent and instrument of 
trade throughout the civilized world, and not less in specie paying coun- 
tries than in countries cursed by an inconvertible paper currency. 
Besides its function of issuing circulating notes, it serves as a clearing- 
house for the transactions of its customers. It brings the buyer and sel- 
ler together, and enables them to complete their exchanges. It brings 
debtors and creditors together, and enables them to adjust their accounts. 
It collects the thousand little hoards of unemployed money, and through 
loans and discounts converts them into active capital. It is a reservoir 
which collects in amounts available for use, the rain-drops which would 
otherwise be lost by dispersion. 

" I find there are still those who deny the doctrine that bank deposits 
form an effective addition to the circulation. But let us see. A bank is 
established at a point thirty or forty miles distant from any other bank. 
Every man wuthin that circle has been accustomed to keep in his pocket 
or safe a considerable sum of money during the year. That average 
amount is virtually withdrawn from circulation, and for the time being 
is canceled, is dead. After a new bank is established, a large portion 



GKEAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 347 

of that average amount is deposited with the bank, and a smaller amount 
is carried in their safes and pockets. These accumulated deposits placed 
in the bank, at once constitute a fund which can be loaned to those who 
need credit. At least four-fifths of the average amount of deposits can 
be loaned out, thus converting dead capital into active circulation. 

"But the word deposits covers far more than the sums of actual money 
placed in the bank by depositors. McLeod, in his great work on bank- 
ing, says: ' Credits standing in bankers' books, from Avhatever source, are 
called deposits. Hence a deposit in banking language always means a 
credit in a banker's books in exchange for money or securities for money.' 
—Vol. ii, p. 267. 

"Much the largest proportion of all bank deposits are of this class — 
mere credits on the books of the bank. Outside the bank, these deposits 
are represented by checks and drafts. Inside the bank, they effect set- 
tlements, and make thousands of imyments by mere transfer from one 
man's account to that of another. This checking and counter-checking 
and transferring of credit, amounts to a sum vastly greater than all the 
deposits. No stronger illustration of the practical use of deposits can be 
found than in the curious fact, that all the heavy payments made by the 
merchants and dealers in the city of Amsterdam for half a century, were 
made through a supposed deposit which had entirely disappeared some 
fifty years before its removal was detected. Who does not know that 
the six hundred millions of dollars of deposits reported every quai'ter as 
a part of the liabilities of the national banks, are mainly credits which 
the banks have given to business men? 

"No currency can meet the wants of this country unless it is founded 
directly upon the demands of business, and not upon the caprice, the ig- 
norance, the political selfishness, of any party in power. 

" What regulates now the loans and discounts and credits of our 
National banks ? The business of the country. The amount increases 
or decreases, or remains stationary, as business is fluctuating or steady. 
This is a natural form of exchange, based upon the business of the coun- 
try and regarded by its changes. And when that happy day arrives, 
when the whole volume of our currency is redeemable in gold at the will 
of tlie holder, and recognized by all nations as equal to money, then the 
whole business of banking, the whole volume of currency, the whole 
amount of credits, whether in the form of checks, drafts, or bills, will be 
regulated by the same general law — the business of the country." 



348 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

At last, Congress came up to the position taken by Garfield iu 
1868. In 1875, the Resumption Act was passed, providing that, 
after January 1, 1879, the United States Treasury would offer one 
dollar in gold for every dollar in greenbacks presented for re- 
demption. That this law was ten years too late can not be doubted. 
The delay prolonged the agony. But it was all that popular 
opinion would allow. In the interim between 1875 and 1879, 
every effort was made by the paper-money men to repeal the act. 
Of General Garfield's speeches in its defense, we select that of 
November 16, 1877, as the type. The reader shall see whether he 
had changed his views, whether the panic and hard times had dis- 
concerted his calculations? Let James A. Garfield speak for him- 
self : 

THE REPEAL OF THE RESUMPTION ACT. 

"We are engaged in a debate which has lasted iu the Anglo-Saxon 
world for more than two centuries, and hardly any phase of it to which 
we have listened in the course of the last week is new. Hardly a pro- 
position has been heard on either side which was not made one hundred 
and eighty years ago in England, and almost a hundred years ago in the 
United States. So singularly does history repeat itself. 

" That man makes a vital mistake who judges of truth in relation 
to financial affairs from the changing phases of public opinion. He might 
as Avell stand on the shores of the Bay of Fundy, and, from the ebb aud 
flow of a single tide, attempt to determine the general level of the sea, 
as to stand on this floor and from the current of public opinion in any one 
debate, judge of the general level of the public mind. It is only when 
long spaces along the shore of the sea are taken into account, that the 
grand level is found, from which all heights and depths are measured. 
And it is only when long spaces of time are considered that we find at 
last the level of public opinion which we call the general judgment of 
mankind. From the turbulent ebb and flow of the public opinion of to- 
day I appeal to that settled judgment of mankind on the subject-matter 
of this debate. 

" In the short time which is allotted to me I invite the attention of gen- 
tlemen, who do me the honor to listen, to a very remarkable fact. I sup- 
pose it will be admitted on all hands, that 1860 was a year of unusual 
business prosperity in the United States. It was at a time when the 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GEEAT ANSWERS. 349 

lounties of Providence were scattered with a liberal liand over the face 
f our Republic. It was a time when all classes of our community were 
fell and profitably employed. It was a time of peace; the apprehen- 
ion of our great civil war had not yet seized the minds of our people. 
Treat crops North and South, great general prosperity marked the era. 

" If one thing Avas settled above all other questions of financial pf)licy 
II the American mind at that time, it was this, that the only sound, 
afe, trustworthy standard of value is coin of a standard weight and 
meness, or a pai:)er currency convertible into coin at the will of the holder. 
?hat was and had been for several generations the almost unanimous 
pinion of the American people. It is true there was here and there a 
heorist dreaming of the philosophei-'s stone, dreaming of a time when 
»aper money, which he worshiped as a kind of fetish, would be crowned 
s a god ; but those dreamers were so few in number that they made 
10 ripple on the current of public thought, and their theories formed 
10 part of public opinion, and the opinion of 1860-61 was the aggregated 
esult of the opinions of all the foremost American^ who have left their 
ecord upon this subject. 

"I make this statement w-ithout fear of contradiction, because I have 
arefuUy examined the list of illustrious names and the records they 
lave left behind them. No man ever sat in the chair of Washington as 
'resident of the United States who has left on record any word that fa- 
'^ors inconvertible paper money as a safe standard of value. Every 
'resident who has left a record on the subject has spoken without quali- 
ication in favor of the doctrine I have announced. No man ever sat in 
he chair of the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States who, if he 
las spoken at all on the subject, has not left on record an opinion 
qually strong, from Hamilton down to the days of the distinguished 
iither of my colleague [Mr. Ewing], and to the present moment. 

"The general judgment of all men who deserve to be called the Icad- 
srs of Americm thought ought to be considered worth something in an 
American House of Representatives on the discussion of a great topic 
ike this. What happened to cause a departure from this general level 
>f public opinion? Every man knows the history. War, the imperious 
lecessities of war, led the men of 1861-62 to depart from the doctrine of 
he fathers ; but they did not depart from it as a matter of choice, but 
;ompelled by overmastering necessity. Every man in the Senate and 
tlouse of 1862 who voted for the greenback law, announced that he did 



350 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

it with the greatest possible rehictance and with the gravest apprehension 
for the result. Every man who spoke on the subject, from Thaddeus 
Stevens to the humblest member in this House, and from Fessenden to the 
humblest Senator, w%arned his country against the danger that might fol- 
low, and pledged his honor that at the earliest possible moment the country 
should be brought back to the old, safe-established doctrine of the fathers. 

"When they made the law creating the greenbacks they incorporated 
into its essential provisions the most solemn pledge men could devise, 
that they would come back to the doctrines of the fathers. The very 
law thatxreated the greenback provided for its redemption and retire- 
ment; and every time the necessities of war required an additional issue, 
new guarantees and new limitations w^ere put upon the new issues to in- 
sure their ultimate redemption. They were issued upon the fundamen- 
tal condition that the number should be so limited forever that under 
the law of contracts the courts might enforce their sanctions. The men 
of 1862 knew the dangers from sad experience in our history ; and, like 
Ulysses, lashed themselves to the mast of public credit when they em- 
barked upon the stormy and boisterous sea of inflated paper money, that 
they might not be beguiled by the siren song which would be sung to 
them when they were afloat on the wild waves. 

" But the times have changed; new men are on deck; men who have 
forgotten the old pledges; and now only twelve years have passed (for as 
late as 1865 this House, with but six dissenting votes, resolved again to 
stand by the old ways and bring the country back to sound money) — only 
twelve years have passed, and what do we find? We find a group of the- 
orists and doctrinaires who look upon the wisdom of the fathers as fool- 
ishness. We find some who advocate what they call "absolute money;" 
who declare that a piece of paper stamped a " dollar" is a dollar; that 
gold and silver are a part of the barbarism of the past, which ought to be 
forever abandoned. We hear them declaring that resumption is a delu- 
sion and a snare. We here them declaring that the eras of prosperity 
are the eras of paper money; and they point us to all times of inflation 
as a period of blessing to the people, prosperity to business ; and they ask 
us no more to vex their ears with any allusion to the old standard, the 
money of the Constitution. Let the wild crop of financial literature that 
has sprung into life within the last twelve years witness how widely and 
how far we have drifted. We have lost our old moorings, have thrown 
overboard our old compass ; we sail by alien stars, looking not for the 
haven, but are afloat on an unknown sea 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 351 

" No theory of currency that existed in 1860 can justify the vohime 
now outstanding. Either our laws of trade, our hiws of value, our laws 
of exchange, have been utterly reversed or the currency of to-day is in ex- 
cess of the legitimate wants of trade. But I admit freely that no Con- 
2:ress is wise enough to determine how much currency the country needs, 
riiere never was a body of men wise enough to do that. The volume of 
currency needed, depends U}3ou laws that are higher than Congress and 
higher than governments. One thing only legislation can do. It can de- 
termine the quality of the money of the country. The laws of trade 
ilone can determine its quantity. 

" In connection with this view we are met by the distinguished gentle- 
man from Pennsylvania [Mr. Kelley] with two historical references on 
rthich he greatly relies in opposing resumption. The first is his refer- 
ence to France. Follow France, says the honorable gentleman from 
Pennsylvania, follow France, and see how she poured out her volumes of 
paper money, and by it survived a great crisis and maintained her busi- 
less prosperity. Oh, that the gentleman and those who vote with him 
svould follow France! I gladly follow up his allusion to France. As a 
proof that we have not enough money, he notices the fact that France has 
xlways used more money than either the United States or England. I ad- 
nit it. But does the gentleman not know that the traditions and habits of 
France are as unlike those of England and the United States as those of 
my two nations of the world can be in regard to the use of money? I 
say to the gentleman that in France, banking, as an instrument of trade, 
s almost unknown. There are no banks in France except the Bank of 
France itself. The government has been trying for tw'enty years to es- 
tablish branches in all the eighty-nine departments, and thus far only fifty- 
six branches have been organized. Our national, State, and j^rivate 
janks number nearly ten thousand. The habits of the French people 
are not adapted to the use of banks as instruments of exchange. All the 
deposits in all the saving-banks of France are not equal to the deposits in 
;he saving-banks of New York City alone. It is the frequent comjilaint 
)f Americans w'ho make purchases in Paris that the merchants will not 
iccept drafts, even on the Bank of France. 

"Victor Bonnet, a recent French writer, says: 'The use of deposits, 
sank accounts, and checks, is still in its infancy in this country. They 
ire very little used even in great cities, while in the rest of France they 
ire completely unknown. It is, how^ever, to be hoped that there will be 
more employed hereafter, and that here, as in England and the United 



352 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

States, payments will be more generally made through the medium of 
bankers and by transfers in account-current. If this should be the case, 
we shall economize both in the use of specie and of bank-notes ; for it is 
to be observed that the use of bank-notes does not reach its fullest de- 
velopment except in countries where the keeping of bank accounts is 
universal, as is evident by comparing France in this respect with En- 
gland.' 

"M. Pinard, manager of the Comptoir d'Escompte, testified before the 
commission of inquiry, that the greatest eftbrts had been made by that 
institution to induce French merchants and shopkeepers to adopt English 
habits in respect to the use of checks and the keeping of bank accounts, 
but in vain; their prejudices wepe invincible. 'It was no use reasoning 
with them ; they would not do it, because they would not.' 

" So long as the business of their country is thus done hand to hand 
by the use of cash, they need a much greater volume of money in pro- 
portion to their business than England or the United States. 

"How is it in England? Statistics, which no man will gainsay, will 
show that ninety-five per cent, of all the great mercantile transactions of 
England is done by drafts, checks, and commercial bills and only five 
per cent, by the actual use of cash. The great business of commerce 
and trade is done by drafts and bills. Money is now only the small 
change of commerce. And how is it in this country? We have adopted 
the habits of England, and not of France, in this regard. In 1871, 
when I was Chairman of the Committee on Banking and Currency, I 
asked the Comptroller of the Currency to issue an order naming fifty- 
two banks which were to make an analysis of their receipts. I selected 
three groups : The first group were the city banks ; not, however, the 
clearing-house banks, but the great city banks not in the clearing-house 
association. The second group consisted of banks in cities of the size of 
Toledo and Dayton, in the State of Ohio. In the third group, if I may 
coin a word, I selected the 'countriest' banks— the smallest that could 
be found at points away from railroads and telegraphs. 

" The order was that all those banks should analyze all their receipts for 
six consecutive days, putting into one list all that can be called cash, either 
in coin, greenbacks, bank-notes, or coupons; and into the other list all 
drafts, checks, or commercial bills. What was the result? During those 
six days $157,000,000 were received over the counters of those fifty-two 
banks ; and, of that amount, $19,370,000 was in cash— twelve per cent. 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 353 

aly in cash ; and eighty-eight per cent, of that vast amount, represent- 
ig every grade of business, was in checks, drafts, and commercial bills, 
'oes a country that transacts its business in that way need as much 
irrency afloat among the people as a country like France, without 
inks, without savings institutions, and whose people keep their money 
; hoards. 

"I remember in reading one of the novels of Dumas, when an officer 
' the French army sent home his agent to run his farm, he loaded him 
)wu with silver enough to conduct the business for a year; there was 
) thought of giving him credit in a bank ; but of locking in the till, at 
le beginning of the year, enough coin to do the business of the year. 
i much for the difference between the habits of France and those of 
nglo-Saxon countries. Let us now consider the conduct of France 
aring and since the German war. In July, 1870, the year before the 
ar began, the Bank of France had outstanding 8251,000,000 of paper 
rculation, and held in its vaults ^229,000,000 of coin. When the war 
'oke out, they were compelled immediately to issue more paper, and to 
ake it a legal tender. They took pattern by us in their necessity, and 
3ued paper until, on the 19th of November, 1873, four years ago next 
'onday, they had $602,000,000 of paper issued by the Bank of France, 
hile the coin in the bank was reduced to 8146,000,000. 

" But the moment their great war was over, they did what I recom- 
ended to the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Kelley], they com- 
enced to reduce their paper circulation, and in one year reduced it 
most $100,000,000, and increased the coin circulation S120,000,000. 
1 the year 1876 they had pushed into circulation $200,000,000 of coin, 
id retired nearly all their small notes. They are at this moment within 
'ty days of resumption of specie payments. Under their law, fifty days 
om to-day, France will again come into the illustrious line of nations 
ho believe in a sound currency. I commend to the eloquent gentleman 
om Pennsylvania [Mr. Kelley] the example of France. 

" The overwhelming and fixed opinion of England is that the cash- 
sumption act of 1819 was a blessing and not a curse, and that the 
rils which England suffered from 1821 to 1826 did not arise from the 
^sumption of cash payments. I appeal to every great writer of ac- 
lowledged character in England for the truth of this position. I nsk 
le gentleman to read the eighth chapter of the second book of INIiss 

[artineau's Hlstoi'y of the Peace, where the case is admirably stated. 
23 



354 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

I appeal also to the opinion of Parliament itself, especially to the House 
of Commons, which is as sensitive an index of puhlic opinion as En- 
gland knows. AVhen they were within about eighteen )uonths of re- 
sumption of specie payment, a motion was made, like the motion of ray 
colleague from Ohio [Mr. Ewing], that the resumption-act bill be re- 
pealed or modified, because it was producing distress. And a number of 
gentlemen in the House of Commons made speeches of the same spirit as 
those which we have heard here within the past week. The distress among 
the people, the crippling of business, the alarm of the mercantile classes, 
all were paraded in the House of Commons, and were answered by those 
knights of finance whose names have become illustrious in English his- 
tory. And at the end of a long debate on that proposition, on the 11th 
of April, 1821, a vote was taken, and the proposition was rejected by a 
vote of 141 to 27. In other words, by a vote of 141 to 27 the House 
of Commons resolved that their act for the resumption of specie pay- 
ments was not causing distress, and ought not to be repealed, and ought 
not to be modified, except to make it more effective. As a matter of 
fact, it was so modified as to allow resumption to take place much sooner 
than was provided in the act of 1819. . . . 

"I now proceed to notice the second point that has been made in favor 
of this bill. It is assumed that specie payment will injure the debtor 
class of this country, and thereby oppress the poor ; in other words, that 
the enforcement of the resumption law will oppress the poor and increase 
the riches of the rich. It is assumed that the laboring-men are in debt, 
and that the rich men constitute the creditor class. I deny this proposition 
in toto. I affirm that the vast majority of the creditors of this country 
are the poor people ; that the vast majority of the debtors of this country 
are the well-to-do people — in fact, people who are moderately rich. 

"As a matter of fact, the poor man, the laboring- man, can not get 
heavily in debt. He has not the security to offer. Men lend their 
money on security, and in the very nature of the case poor men can 
borrow but little. What then do poor men do with their small earnings? 
When a man has earned, out of his hard work, a hundred dollars more 
than he needs for current expenses, he reasons thus: 'I can not go into 
business with a hundred dollars; I can not embark in trade; but, as I 
work, I want my money to work.' And so he puts his small gains where 
they will earn something. He lends his money to a wealthier neighbor, 
or puts it in tlie savings-bank. There were, in the United States, on the 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 355 

first of November, 1876, forty-four hundred and seventy-five savings- 
banks and private ban]<s of deposit, and their deposits amounted to 
81,377,000,000, almost three-fourths of the amount of our national debt. 
Over two and a half millions of the citizens of the United States were de- 
positors. In some States the deposits did not average more than 8250 
each. The great mass of the depositors are men and women of small 
means — laborers, widows, and orphans. They are the lenders of this 
enormous aggregate. The savings-banks, as their agents, lend it to 
•whom ? Not to the laboring poor, but to the business men who wish to 
enlarge their business beyond their capital. Speculators sometimes bor- 
row it. But in the main, well-to-do busmess men borrow these hoardings. 
Thus the poor lend to the rich. . 

"There is another way in which poor men dispose of their money. A 
man says : ' I can keep my wife and babies from starving while I live and 
have my health, but if I die they may be compelled to go over the hills 
to the poor-house'; and, agonized by that thought, he saves out of his 
hard earnings enough to take out and keep alive a small life-insurance 
policy, so that, if he dies, there may be something left, provided the in- 
surance company to which he intrusts his money is honest enough to keep 
its pledges. And how many men do you think have done that in the 
United States? I do not know the number for the whole country, but I 
do know this, that from a late report to the insurance commissioner of 
the State of New York, it appears that the companies doing business in 
that State had 774,625 policies in force, and the face value of these poli- 
cies was 81,922,000,000. I find, by looking over the returns, that in my 
State there are 55,000 policies outstanding; in Pennsylvania, 74,000 ; in 
Maine, 17,000; in Maryland, 25,000; and, in the State of New York, 
100,090. There are, of course, some rich men insured in these compa- 
nies, but the majority are poor people, for the policies do not average 
more than 82,200 each. What is done with the assets of these compa- 
oies, which amount to 8445,000,000? They are loaned out. Here again 
the creditor class is the poor, and the insurance companies are the agents 
of the poor to lend their money for them. It would be dishonorable for 
Congress to legislate either for the debtor class or for the creditor class 
alone. We ought to legislate for the whole country. But when gentle- 
men attemjjt to manufacture sentiment against the resumption act, by 
■«aying it will helj) the rich and hurt the poor, they are overwhelmindy 
au.<wered by the facts. 



356 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

" Suppose you undo the work that Congress has attempted — to resnm( 
specie payment — what will result? You will depreciate the value of the 
greenback. Suppose it falls ten cents on the dollar, you will have de 
stroyed ten per cent, of the value of every deposit in the savings-banks, 
ten per cent, of every life-insurance policy and fire-insurance policy, of 
every pension to the soldier, and of every day's wages of every laborei 
in the nation. 

"In the census of 1870, it was estimated that on any given day there 
were §120,000, 000 due to laborers for their unpaid wages. That is a 
small estimate. Let the greenback dollar come down ten per cent, and 
you take 812,000,000 from the men who have already earned it. In the 
name of every interest connected with the poor man I denounce this 
effort to prevent resumption. Daniel Webster never uttered a greatei 
truth in finance than when he said that of all contrivances to cheat the 
laboring-classes of mankind, none was so effective as that which deluded 
them with an irredeemable paper money. The rich can take cai-e of 
themselves, but the dead-weight of all the fluctuations and losses falls 
ultimately on the poor man who has only his day's work to sell. 

"I admit that in the passage from peace to war there was a great 
loss to one class of the community, to the creditors ; and in the return 
to the basis of peace some loss to debtors was inevitable. This injustice 
was unavoidable. The loss and gain did not fall upon the same. The 
evil could not be balanced nor adjusted. The debtors of 1862-'65 are 
not the debtors of 1877. The most competent judges declare that the 
average life of the private debts in the United States is not more than 
two years. Of course, obligations may be renewed, but the average 
length of private debts in this country is not more than two years. 
Now, we have already gone two years on the road to resumption, and 
the country has been adjusting itself to the new condition of things. 
The people have expected resumption, and have already discounted most 
of the hardships and sufferings incident to the change. The agony is 
almost over ; and if we now embark again upon the open sea we lose all 
that has been gained, and plunge the country into the necessity of vent- 
uring once more over the same boisterous ocean, with all its perils and 
uncertainties. I speak the deepest convictions of my mind and heart 
when I say that, should this resumption act be repealed and no effectual 
substitute be put in its place, the day is not far distant when all of us, 
looking back on this time from the depths of the evils which will result, 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWER.S. 357 

will regret, with all our power to regret, the clay when we again let 
loose the dangers of inflation upon the country. 

4c * , ;|« * * * * * 

"Although I do not believe in keeping greenbacks as a permanent 
currency in the United States, although I do not myself believe in the 
(Tovernment becoming a pennaueut banker, yet I am willing for one that, 
in order to prevent the sliock to business which gentlemen fear, the 
§300,000,000 of greenbacks shall be allowed to remain in circulation as 
long as the wants of trade show manifestly that they are needed. Now, 
is that a great contraction? Is it contraction at all? 

" Why, gentlemen, when you have brought your greenback up two 
and one-half cents higher in value, you will have added to your volume 
of money §200,000,000 of gold coin which can not circulate until green- 
backs are brought to par. 

"Let those who are afraid of contraction consitiLer that and answ^er it. 

"Summing it all up in a word: the struggle now pending in the 
House is on the one hand to make tlie greenback better, and on the 
other to make it worse. The resumption act is making it better every 
dav. Kepeal that act and you make it infinitely worse. In the name 
of every man who wants his own when he has earned it, I demand that 
we do not make the wages of the poor man to shrivel in his hands after 
he has earned it ; but that his money shall be made better and better, 
until the plow-holder's money shall be as good as the bond-hoUler's 
money; until our standard is one, and there is no longer one money for 
the rich and another for the poor." 

With these bits of marble chipped from the temple of his argu- 
ments on the currency question, we must content ourselves. 
Upon this question Garfield was undoubtedly ahead of his p^oncr- 
ation. The resumption hill which he introduced in 1S(>S was 
better than the one adopted in 1875. He presented the i'unda- 
mental principles as he understood thcni in ISHS. From tlu-m he 
never changed. All subsequent efforts were but their elaboration, 
and, at this writing, history itself is their fulfillment and demon- 
stration. 

It is easy to see that his style <'f speaking ehanged somewhat. 
He became more terse and epigrammatic. He condensed the 



/ 



358 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



philosophical parts of his speeches, and enlarged the practical 
parts. He became more direct in address, more sparing of orna- 
ment, and simpler in language. But this was all.^ He was never 
known to be on but one side of a question. He took his position 
only after the most laborious -investigations and careful thought. 
Once taken, nothing could drive him from it. In his answers to 
the riddles propounded by the Sphinx of American currency and 
finance, James A. Garfield is entitled to a place in the gallery of 
fame, beside the greatest financiers known to our national history. 
In the future, no authority will be, or can be, higher than Gar- 
field. 

Our next inquiry relates to Garfield's record upon questions af- 
fecting the Revenue and Expenditures of the United States. Owing 
to his long service on the Committees on Ways and Means and on 
Appropriations, these twin topics of surpassing importance contin- 
ually lay like couchant lions right in his political pathway. 

Of the question of revenue, the tariff is the most vital branch. 
On the subjects of free-trade and protection, Garfield had made up 
his mind while at Williams College. Professor Perry, the in- 
structor in political economy, was an unqualified free-trader. After 
his usual careful investigation, Garfield took the opposite view. 
He formulated the following proposition : "As an abstract theory, 
the doctrine of Free-Trade seems to be universally true, but as a 
question of practicability, under a government like ours, the pro- 
tective system seems to be indispensable." 

Into the defense of that proposition he threw all his energies. 
In his speeches on the tariff we will find but one continual elabo- 
ration of this view. The speeches are moderate and conserva- 
tive, avoiding either extreme. His object was to legislate for the 
whole country and not for any locality or class alone. On April 1, 
1870, he delivered a speech on the tariff, which is of the first rank 
among his earlier efforts. 

It presents an interesting history of England's tariff policy to- 
ward the colonies, a brilliant discussion of the trend of prices 
since the war, and closes with a review of the eventful history of 
tariff legislation in this country, not omitting the South Carolina 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 359 

niillificatiou. The high tariffs required by tlie high prices pre- 
vailing during the war, he thought, should be gradually re- 
duced. Every one knows that the advantage of a high tariff on 
imports is the protection it gives to American industry by keej)- 
in»«- up the prices here, and preventing competition with the cheap 
labor of Europe. But it is equally true that, while keeping prices 
up is good for the seller, and indirectly for the laborer whom he 
emi)loys, it is bad for the buyer. Free-trade makes low prices. 
Avoiding alike the Scylla on the one h'and and the Charybdis on 
the other, Garfield chose a medium. He closed his speech of April 
1, 1870, by an appeal against either extreme: 

•' I stand now where I have always stood since I have been a member 
of this House. I take the liberty of quoting, from the Congremomd 
Globe of 18G6, the following remarks which I then made on the subject of 
the tariff: 

" ' We have seen that one extreme school of economists would place 
the price of all manufactured articles in the hands of foreign producers 
by rendering it impossible for our manufacturers to compete with them ; 
while the other extreme school, by making it impossible for the foreigner 
to sell his competing wares in our market, would give the people no im- 
mediate check upon the prices which our manufacturers might fix for 
their products. I disagree with both these extremes. I h(»ld that a prop- 
erly adjusted competition l)etwcen home and foreign })roducts is the best 
gauge by which to regulate international trade. Duties should \>e so 
high that our manufacturers can fairly compete with the foreign product, 
but not so high as to enable them to drive out the foreign article, enjoy a 
monopoly of the trade, and regulate the price as they please. This is 
my doctrine of protection. If Congress pursue this line of jwlicy stead- 
ily, we shall, year by year, approach more nearly to the b;t*is of free- 
trade, because we shall be more nearly able to compete with other nations 
on equal terms. I am for that protection which leads to ultimate frce^trade. 
I am for tJiat free-trade whidi can oidy he achieved through a reasonable 
protection.' " 

As the representative of General Garfield's tariff speeches in these 
pages, we .select the one of February 4, 1878. Of this speech a 
gentleman of high abilities and information, says: "Having read 



>L 360 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

aud re-read it carefully, and having read all the great speeches 
made in Congress for forty years before the war on this difficult 
question, it is my deliberate conviction that the sound American 
doctrine of protection has never been stated with equal clearness, 
breadth, and practicality." 

THE TARIFF. 

" A few days ago, the distinguished gentleman from Virginia, who now 
occupies the chair [Mr. Tucker], made a speech of rare abiHty and 
power, in which he placed at the front of his line of discussion a question 
that was never raised in American legislation until our present form of 
Government was forty years old ; the question of the constitutionality of 
a tariff for the encouragement and protection of manufacturers. The first 
page of the printed speech of the gentleman, as it appears in the Co7i- 
gressional Record, is devoted to an elaborate and very able discussion of 
that question. 

" He insists that the two powers conferred upon Congress, to levy duties 
and to regulate commerce, are entirely distinct from each other ; that the 
one can not by any fair construction be applied to the other ; that the 
methods of the one are not the methods of the other, and that the capital 
mistake which he conceives has been made in the legislation of the 
country for many years is that the power to tax has been applied to the 
regulation of commerce, and through that to the protection of manufac- 
tures. He holds that if we were to adopt a proper construction of the 
Constitution we should find that the regulation of commerce does not 
permit the protection of manufactures, nor can the power to tax be ap- 
plied, directly or indirectly, to that object. 

"I will not enter into any elaborate discussion of that question, but I 
can not refrain from expressing my admiration of the courage of the gen- 
tleman from Virginia, who in that part of his speech brought himself 
into point-blank range of the terrible artillery of James Madison, one of 
the fathers ol the Constitution, and Virginia's great expounder of its pro- 
visions. 

"In a letter addressed to Joseph C. Cabell, on the 18th of March, 
1827, will be found one of those discussions in which Mr. INIadison gives 
categorically thirteen reasons against the very constitutional theory ad- 
vanced now by the gentleman from Virginia [i\Ir. Tucker]. It would 
almost seem that the distinguished author of the book which I hold in 



t 



GKEAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANS^VEKS. 361 X, 

my liand had prophetically in his mind the very speech delivered in this 
House by the later Virginian, for he refutes its arguments, point by point, 
thoroughly and completely. 

" I say that more than a hundred pages of Madison's works are devoted 
to discussing and exploding what was, in 1828, this new notion of consti- 
tutional construction. In one of these papers he calls to mind the fact 
that sixteen of the men who framed the Constitution sat in the first Con- 
gress and helped to frame a tariff expressly for the protection of domestic 
industries ; and it is fair to presume that these men understood the mean- 
ing: of the Constitution. 

"I will close this phase of the discussion by calling the attention of 
the committee to the language of the Constitution itself: 

" 'The Congress shall h^ve power to lay and collect taxes, duties, im- 
posts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense 
and general welfare of the United States.' 

"• Language could hardly be plainer to declare the great general objects 
to which the taxing power is .to be applied. 

" It should be borne in mind that revenue is the life-blood of a govern- 
ment, circulating through every part of its organization and giving force 
and vitality to every function. The power to tux is therefore the great 
motive power, and its regulation impels, retards, restrains, or limits all 
the functions of the Government. 

" What are these functions? The Constitution authorizes Congress to 
regulate and control this great motive power, the power to levy and col- 
lect duties ; and the objects for which duties are to be levied and col- 
lected are summarized in three great groups: First, 'to pay debts.' By 
this, the arm of the Government sweeps over all its past historj' and pro- 
tects its honor by discharging all obligations that have come do\,vn from 
former years. Second, is ' to provide for the common defense.' By this, 
the mailed arm of the Government sweeps the great circle of the Union 
to defend it against foes from without and insurrection within. And, 
third, is to ' promote the general welfare.' These are the three great 
objects to which the Constitution applies the power of taxation. They 
are all great, beneficient, national objects, and can not be argued out of 
existence. 

"The fifteen specifications following in the eighth section of the snino 
article — such as the power to raise armies, to maintain a navy, to establish 
courts, to coin money, to regulate commerce with foreign nations and 



ICC 



\ 



362 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

among the several States, to promote science and the useful arts by 
granthig patents and copyrights — are all specifications and limitations of 
the methods by which this great central power of taxation is to be ap- 
plied to the common defense and the general welfare. And it is left to 
the discretion of Congress to determine how these objects shall be se- 
cured by the use of the powers thus conferred upon it. 

" The men who created this Constitution also set it in operation, and 
developed their own idea of its character. That idea was unlike any 
other that then prevailed upon the earth. They made the general wel- 
fai'e of the people the great source and foundation of the common defense. 
In all the nations of the Old World the public defense was provided for 
by great standing armies, navies, and fortified posts, so that the nation 
might every moment be fully armed against danger from without or tur- 
bulence within. Our fathers said: ' Though we will use the taxing power 
to maintain a small army and navy sufficient to keep alive the knowl- 
edge of war, yet the main reliance for our defense shall be the intelli- 
gence, culture, and skill of our people ; a development of our own intel- 
lectual and material resources, which will enable us to do every thing 
that may be necessary to equip, clothe, and feed ourselves in time of war, 
and make ourselves intelligent, happy, and prosperous in peace.' 

" To lay the foundation for the realization of these objects was a lead- 
ing motive which led to the formation of the Constitution, and was the 
earliest and greatest object of solicitude in the First Congress. 

"Two days after the votes for president were counted, and long before 
Washington was inaugurated, James Madison rose in the first House of 
Representatives, and for the first time moved to go into the Committee of 
the Whole on the state of the Union, for the express purpose of carrying 
out the theory of the Constitution to provide for the common defense 
and the general welfare, both by regulating commerce and protecting 
American manufactures. Thus, on the 8th of April, 1789, he opened a 
debate which lasted several weeks, in which was substantially developed 
every idea that has since appeared save one, the notion that it was uncon- 
stitutional to protect American industry. All other phases of the sub- 
ject were fully and thoroughly handled in that great debate. 

' ' Our fathers had been disciplined in the severe school of experience 
during the long period of colonial dependence. The heavy hand of Brit- 
ish repression was laid upon all their attempts to become a self-supporting 
people. The navigation laws and commercial regulations of the mother 



GEEAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 363 

country were based upon the theory that tlie colonies were founded for 
the sole purjwse of raising up customers for her trade. They were 
allowed to purchase in British markets alone any manufactured article 
which England had to sell. In short, they were compelled to trade with 
England on her own terms ; and whether buying or selling, the product 
must be carried in British bottoms at the carrier's own price. In addi- 
tion to this, a revenue tax of 5 per cent, was imposed on all colonial 
exports and imports. 

The colonists were doomed to the servitude of furnishing, by the sim- 
plest forms of labor, raw materials for the mother country, who arro- 
gated to herself the sole right to supply her colonies with the finished 
product. To our fathers, independence was emancipation from this serv- 
itude. They knew that civilization advanced from the hunting to the 
pastoral state, from the pastoral to the agricultural, which has such 
charms for the distinguished gentleman from Virginia. But they also 
knew that no merely agricultural people had ever been able to rise to a 
high civilization and to self-supporting independence. They determined, 
therefore, to make their emancipation comi^lete by adding to agriculture 
the mechanic arts, which in their turn would carry agriculture and all 
other industries to a still higher development, and place our people in 
the front rank of civilized and self-supporting nations. This idea in- 
spired the legislation of all the earlier Congresses. It found expression 
in the first tariif act of 1789; in the higher rates of the act of 1790; 
and in the still larger schedule and increased rates of the acts of 1797 
and 18U0. 

In 1806 the non-importation act forbade the importation of British 
manufactures of silk, cloth, nails, spikes, brass, tin, and many other arti- 
cles; and the eight years of embargo witnessed a great growth in Amer- 
ican manufactures. When the non-importation act was repealed in 1814, 
John C. Calhoun assured the country that Congress would not fail to 
provide other adequate means for promoting the development of our 
industries; and, under his lead, the protective tariff of 1816 was 
enacted. 

"I have given this brief historical sketch for the purpose of exhibiting 
the ideas out of which the tariff legislation of this country has sprung. 
It has received tlie support of the most renowned names in our early his- 
tory; and, though the principle of protection has sometimes been carried 
to an unreasonable extreme, thua bringing reproach upon the system, it 



Id 

y^ 364 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

has nevertheless borne many of the fruits which were anticipated by those 
■who planted the germ. 

" Gentlemen who oppose this view of public policy tell us that they 
favor a tariff for revenue alone. I therefore invite their attention to the 
revenue phase of the question. The estimated expenditures for the next 
fiscal year are two hundred and eighty and one-half million dollars, in- 
cluding interest on the public debt and the appropriations required by law 
for the sinking fund. The Secretary of the Treasury estimates the reve- 
nues which our present laws will furnish at $269,000,000; from customs, 
one hundred and thirty-three millions; from internal revenue, one hun- 
dred and twenty millions; and from miscellaneous sources, sixteen mill- 
ions. He tells us that it will be necessary to cut down the expenditure? 
eleven millions below the estimates in order to prevent a deficit of that 
amount. The revenues of the last fiscal year failed by three and a 
quarter millions to meet the expenditures required by law. 

" In the face of these facts can we safely diminish our revenues? If 
we mean to preserve the public faith and meet all the necessities of the 
Government we can not reduce the present revenues a single dollar. Yet 
the majority of this House not only propose to reduce the internal tax on 
spirits and tobacco but they propose in this bill to reduce the revenues on 
customs by at least $6,000,000. To avoid the disgrace of a deficit they 
propose to suspend the operations of the sinking fund and thereby shake 
the foundation of the public credit. But they tell us that some of the re- 
ductions made in this bill will increase rather than diminish the revenue. 
Perhaps on a few articles this will be true ; but as a whole it is undeniable 
that this bill will efiect a considerable reduction in the revenues from 
customs. 

"Gentlemen on the other side have been in the habit of de- 
nouncing our present tariflf laws as destructive to, rather than pro- 
ductive of, revenue. Let me invite their attention to a few plain 
facts : 

"During the fifteen years that preceded our late war — a period of so- 
called revenue tariffs — we raised from customs an average annual revenue 
of forty-seven and a half million dollars, never in any year receiving 
more than sixty-four millions. That system brought us a heavy deficit 
in 1860, so that Congress was compelled to borrow money to meet the 
ordinary expenses of the Government. 

"Do they tell us that our present law fails to produce an adequate 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 365 

revenue? They denounce it as not a revenue tariff. Let them wrestle 
with the following fact: During the eleven years that have passed since 
the close of the war we have averaged one hundred and seventy and 
one-half million dollars of revenue per annum from customs alone. Can 
they say that this is not a revenue tariff which produces more than three 
times as much revenue per annum as that law did which they delight to 
.call 'the revenue tariff?' In one year, 1872, the revenues from the cus- 
toms amounted to two hundred and twelve millions. Can they say that 
the present law does not produce revenue? It produces from textile 
fabrics alone more revenue than we ever raised from all sources under 
any tariff before the war. From this it follows that the assault upon 
the present law fails if made on the score of revenue alone. 

"I freely admit that revenue is the primary object of taxation. That 
object is attained by existing laAV. But it is an incidental and vitally 
important object of the law to keep in healthy growth those industries 
which are necessary to the well-being of the whole countrjr. 

"Let us glance at the leading industries Avhich, under the provisions 
of the existing law, are enabled to maintain themselves in the sharp 
struggle of comjietition with other countries. I will name them in five 
groups. In the first I place the textile fabrics, manufactures of cotton, 
wool, flax, hemp, jute, and silk. From these we received during the 
last fiscal year $50,000,000, which is more than one-third of all our 
customs revenue. 

"It is said that a tax should not be levied upon the clothing of the 
people. This would be a valid objection were it not for the fact that 
objects of the highest national importance are secured by its imposition. 
That forty-five millions of people should be able to clothe themselves 
without helpless dependence upon other nations is a matter of transcend- 
ent importance to every citizen. What American can be indifferent to 
the fact that in the year 1875 the State of Massachusetts alone produced 
992,000,000 yards of textile fabrics, and in doing so consumed seventy- 
five million dollars' worth of the products of the fields and flocks, and 
gave employment to 120,000 artisans? There is a touch of pathos in 
the apologetic reply of Governor Spottswood, an early colonial Governor 
of Virginia, when he wrote to his British superiors: 

" 'The people of Virginia, more of necessity than inclination, attempt 
to clothe themselves with their own manufactures. ... It is cer- 
tainly necessary to divert their ai)plication to some commodity less prcju- 



366 , LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

dicial to the trade of England.'— Bancroft's Hutory of the United States, 
vol. iv, page 104. 

"Thanks to our independence, such apologies are no longer needed. 
Some of the rates on the textiles are exorbitant and ought to be re- 
duced ; but the general principle which prevades the group is wise and 
beneficent, not only a.s a means of raising revenue, but as a measure of 
national economy. 

"In the second group I have placed the metals, including gla^s and 
chemicals. Though the tariff upon this group has been severely de- 
nounced in this debate, the rate does not average more than thirty-six 
per cent, ad valorem, and the group produced about $14,000,000 of reve- 
nue last year. Besides serving as a source of public revenue, what in- 
telligent man fails to see that the metals are the basis of all the machin- 
ery, tools, and implements of every industry? More than any other in 
the world's history, this is the age when inventive genius is bending all 
its energies toidevise means to increase the effectiveness of human labor. 
The mechanical wonders displayed at our Centennial Exposition are a 
sufficient illustration. 

"The people that can not make their own implements of industry 
must be content to take a very humble and subordinate place in the 
family of nations. The people that can not, at any time, by their own 
previous training, arm and equip themselves for war, must be content to 
exist by the sufferance of others. 

"I do not say that no rates in this group are too high. Some 
of them can safely be reduced. But I do say these industries 
could not have attained their present success without the national 
care; and to abandon them now will prevent their continued pros- 
perity. 

"In the third group I place wines, spirits, and tobacco in its various 
forms which come from abroad. On these, rates of duty range from 
eighty-five to ninety-five per cent, ad valorem; and from them we col- 
lected last year ^10,000,000 of revenue. The wisdom of this tax will 
hardly be disputed by any one. 

"In the fourth group I have placed imported provisions which come in 
competition with the products of our own fields and herds, including 
breadstuffs, salt, rice, sugar, molasses, and spices. On these provisions 
imported into this country we collected last year a revenue of $42,000,000, 
$37,000,000 of which was collected on sugar. Of the duty on the 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 3G7 

principal article of this group I shall speak further on in the 
discussion. ^ 

" On the fifth group, comprising leather and manufactures of leather, 
we received about $3,000,000 of revenue. 

"On the imports included in the five groups I have mentioned, which 
com2:)rise the great manufacturing industries of the country, we collect 
8119,000,000 — more than ninety per cent, of all our customs revenue. 
I ask if it be not an object of the highest national importance to keep 
alive and in vigorous health and growth the industries included in these 
groups ? What sort of people should we be if we did not keep them 
ahve? Suppose we were to follow the advice of the distinguished gen- 
tleman from Virginia [Mr. Tucker] when he said: 

" 'Why should me make pig-iron when with Berkshire pigs raised 
upon our farms we can buy more iron pigs from England than we can 
get by trying to make them ours'elves? We can get more iron pigs from 
England for Berkshire pigs than we can from the Pennsylvania manu- 
facturers. Why, then, should I not be permitted to send there for 
them? . . , 

" 'What a market for our raw material, for our products, if we only 
would take the hand which Great Britain extends to us for free-trade 
between us!' 

" For a single season, perhaps, his plan might be profitable to the 
consumers of iron ; but if his policy were adopted as a permanent one, 
it would reduce us to a merely agricultural people, whose chief business 
would be to produce the simplest raw materials by the least skill and 
culture, and let the men of brains of other countries do our thinking for 
us, and provide for us all products requiiing the cunning hand of the 
artisan, while we would be compelled to do the drudgery for ourselves 
and for them. 

" The gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Tucker] is too good a logician not 
to see that the theory he advocates can only be realized in a state of uni- 
versal peace and brotherhood among the nations ; and, in developing his 
plan, he says: 

"'Commerce, Mr. Chairman, links all mankind in one common 
brotherhood of mutual dei)endence and interests, and thus creates that 
unity of our race which makes the resources of all the property of each 
and every member. We can not if we would, and sliould not if we 
could, remain isolated and alone. Men under the benign influence of 



•7 ^ 



11^ 

368 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

Christianity yearn for intercourse, for the interchange of thought and 
the products of thought as a means of a common progress toward a 
nobler civilization 

'"Mr. Chairman, I can not believe this is according to the Divine 
plan. Christianity bids us seek, in communion with our brethren of every 
race and clime, the blessings they can afford us, and to bestow in return 
upon them those with which, our new continent is destined to fill the 
world.' 

" This, I admit, is a grand conception, a beautiful vision of the time 
when all the nations shall dwell in peace ; when all will be, as it were, one 
nation, each furnishing to the others what they can not profitably pro- 
duce, and all working harmoniously together in the millennium of peace. 
If all the kingdoms of the world should become the kingdom of the Prince 
of Peace, then I admit that universal free-trade ought to prevail. But 
that blessed era is yet too remote to be* made the basis of the practical 
legislation of to-day. "We are not yet members of the ' parliament of 
man, the federation of the world.' For the present, the world is divided 
into separate nationalities; and that other divine command still applies 
to our situation : ' He that provideth not for his own household has de- 
nied the faith, and is worse than an infidel;' and, until that better era 
arrives, patriotism must supply the place of universal brotherhood. 

" For the present Gortschakoff can do more good to the world by tak- 
ing care of Russia. The great Bismarck can accomplish more for his 
era by being, as he is, a German to the core, and promoting the welfare 
of the German Empire. Let Beacousfield take care of England, and 
McMahon of France, and let Americans devote themselves to the wel- 
fare of America. When each does his best for his own nation to pro- 
mote prosperity, justice, and peace, all will have done more for the world 
than if all had attempted to be cosmopolitans rather than patriots. [Ap- 
plause.] 

" But I wish to say, Mr. Chairman, that I have no sympathy with 
those who approach this question only from the standpoint of their own 
local, selfish interest. When a man comes to me and says, ' Put a pro- 
hibitory duty on the foreign article which competes with my product, that 
I may get rich more rapidly,' he does not excite my sympathy ; he re- 
pels me ; and when another says, ' Give no protection to the manufac- 
turing industries, for I am not a manufacturer and do not care to have 
them sustained,' I say that he, too, is equally mercenary and unpatriotic. 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 369 

If we were to legislate in that spirit, I might turn to the gentleman from 
Chicago and say, ' Do not ask me to vote for an appropriation to build 
a court-house or a post-office in your city; I never expect to get any 
letters from that office, and the people of my district never exjject to 
be in your courts.' If we were to act in this spirit of narrow isolation 
we should be unfit for the national positions we occupy. 

" Too much of our tariff* discussions have been warjjcd by narrow and 
sectional considerations. But when we base our action upon the con- 
ceded national importance of the great industries I have referied to, 
when we recognize the fact that artizaiis and their products are essential 
to the well-being of our country, it f()llo\\s that there is no dweller in the 
humblest cottage on our remotest frontier who has not a deep personal 
interest in the legislation that shall promote these great national indus- 
tries. Those arts that enable our nation to rise in the scale of civiliza- 
tion bring their blessings to all, and patriotic citizens will cheerfully bear 
a fair share of the burden necessary to make their country great and self- 
sustaining. I will defend a tariff* that is national in its aims, that pro- 
tects and sustains those interests without Avhich the nation can iK)t be- 
come great and self-sustaining. 

"So important, in my view, is the ability of the nation to manufac- 
ture all these articles necessary to arm, equip, and clothe our people, 
that if it could not be secured in any other way I would vote to pay 
money out of the Federal Treasury to maintain government iron and 
steel, woolen and cotton mills, at whatever cost. Were we to neglect 
these great interests and depend upon other nations, in what a condition 
of helplessness would we find ourselves when we should be again involved 
in war with the very nations on whom we were depending to furnish us 
these supplies? The system adopted by our fiUhers is wiser, for it so en- 
courages the great national industries as to make it possible at all times 
for our people to equip themselves for war, and at the same time increase 
their intelligence and skill so as to make them better fitted for all the 
duties of citizenship both in war and in peace. We provide for the com- 
mon defense by a system which promotes the general welfare. 

" I have tried thus summarily to state the grounds on which a tariff* 
which produces the necessary revenue and at the same time promotes 
American manufactures, can be sustained by large-minded men, for na- 
tional reasons. How high the rates of such a tariff* ought to be is a 
question on which there may fairly be diff*erences of opinion. 
24 



f few « / 

// 1 

370 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

"Fortunately or unfortunately, on tliis question I have long occupied 
a position between two extremes of opinion. I have long believed, and 
I still believe, that the worst evil which has afflicted the interests of the 
American artisans and manufacturers has been the tendency to extremes 
in our tarifi' legislation. Our history for the last fifty years has been a 
repetition of the same mistake. One party comes into power, and believing 
that a protective tariff is a good thing establishes a fair rate of duty. 
Not content with that, they say: 'This works well, let us have more of 
it,' and they raise the rates still higher, and perhaps go beyond the lira- 
its of national interest. 

"Every additional step in that direction increases the opposition and 
threatens the stability of the whole system. When the policy of increase 
is pushed beyond a certain point, the popular reaction sets in ; the oppo- 
site party gets into power and cuts down the high rates. Not content 
with reducing the rates that are unreasonable, they attack and destroy 
the whole protective system. Then follows a deficit in the Treasu>ry, the 
destruction of manufacturing interests, until the inaction again sets in, 
the free-traders are overthrown, and a protective system is again estab- 
lished. In not less than four distinct periods during the last fifty years 
has this sort of revolution taken place in our industrial system. Our 
great national industries have thus been tossed up and down between 
two extremes of opinion. 

" During my term of service in this House I have resisted the effort 
to increase the rates of duty whenever I thought an increase would be 
dangerous to the stability of our manufacturing interests ; and by doing 
so, I have sometimes been thought unfriendly to the policy of protecting 
American industry. When the necessity of the revenues and the safety 
of our manufactures warranted, I have favored a reduction of rates; and 
these reductions have aided to preserve the stability of the system. In 
one jear, soon after the close of the war, we raised $212,000,000 of rev- 
enue from customs. 

"In 1870 we reduced the custom duties by the sum of twenty-nine 
and one-half millions of dollars. In 1872 they were again reduced by 
the sum of forty-four and one half millions. Those reductions were in 
the main wise and judicious; and although I did not vote for them all, 
yet they have put the fair-minded men of this country in a position 
where they can justly resist any considerable reduction below the present 
rates. 



/7^ 

GKEAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 371 >^ 

"My view of the danger of extreme positions on the questions of tariff 
rates may be illustrated by a remark made by Horace Greeley in the last 
couversation I ever had with that distinguished man. Said he : 

" ' My criticism of you is that you are not sufficiently high protective 
in your views.' 

" I replied : 

" ' What would you advise?' 

" He said : 

" 'If I had my way — if I were king of this country — I would put a 
duty of $100 a ton on pig-iron and a proportionate duty on every thing 
else that can be produced in America. The result would be that our 
people would be obliged to supply their own wants; manufactures would 
spring up; competition would finally reduce prices; and we should live 
wholly within ourselves.' 

"I replied that the fatal objection to his theory was that no man is 
king of this country, with power to make his policy permanent. But as 
all our policies depend upon popular support, the extreme measure pro- 
posed would beget an opposite extreme, and our industries would suffer 
from violent reactions. For this reason I believe that we ought to seek 
that point of stable equilibrium somewhere between a prohibitory tariff 
on the one hand, and a tariff that gives no protection on the other. 
What is that point of stable equilibrium? In my judgment it is this: a 
'rate so high that foreign producers can not flood our markets and break 
down our home manufacturers, but not so high as to keep them altogether 
out, enabling our manufacturers to combine and raise the prices, nor so 
high as to stimulate an unnatural and unhealthy growth of manufactures. 

" In other words, I would have the duty so adjusted that every great 
American industry can fairly live and make fair profits; and yet so low 
that if our manufacturers attempted to put uj) prices unreasonably, the 
competition from abroad would come in and bring down prices to a fiiir 
rate. Such a tariff I believe will be supported by the great majority of 
Americans. We are not far from having such a tariff in our present 
law. In some respects we have departed from that standard. Wher- 
ever it does, we should amend it, and by so doing we shall secure stabil- 
ity and prosperity. 

"This brings me to the consideration of the pending bill. It was my 
hope, at the beginning of the present session, that the Committee of Ways 
and Means would enter upon a revision of the tariff in the spirit I have 



/7^ 



372 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

indicated. The Secretary of the Treasury suggested in his annual report 
that a considerable number of articles which produced but a small amount 
of revenue, afld were not essential to the prosperity of our manufacturers, 
could be placed upon the free list, thus simplifying the law and making 
it more consistent in its details. I was ready to assist in such a work of 
revision; but the committee had not gone far before it was evident 
that they intended to attack the whole system, and, as far as possible, 
destroy it. The results of their long and arduous labors are embodied in 
the pending bill. 

" Some of the rates can be slightly reduced without serious harm ; but 
many of the reductions proposed in this bill will be fatal. It is related 
that when a surgeon was probing an emperor's wound to find the ball, 
he said : 

'"Can your Majesty allow me to go deeper?' 

" His Majesty replied : 

" 'Probe a little deeper and you will find the Emperor.' 

" It is that little deeper probing by this bill that will touch the vital 
interests of this country and destroy them. 

"The chief charge I make against this bill is that it seeks to cripple 
the protective features of the law. It increases rates where an in- 
crease is not necessary, and it cuts them down where cutting will kill. 
One of the wisest provisions of our present law is the establishment of a 
definite free list. From year to year when it has been found that any 
article could safely be liberated from duty it has been put upon the free 
list. A large number of raw materials have thus been made free of duty. 
This has lightened the burdens of taxation, and at the same time aided 
the mdustries of the country. 

"To show the progress that has been made in this direction, it should 
be remembered that in 1867 the value of all articles imported free of duty 
was but $39,000,000, while in 1877 the free imports amounted to 
$181,000,000. 

"As I have already said, the Secretary of the Treasury recommends a 
still further increase of the free list. But this bill abolishes the free list 
altogether and imposes duties upon a large share of articles now free. 
And this is done in order to make still greater reduction upon articles 
that must be protected if their manufacture is maintained in this country. 

"Let me notice a few of the great industries at which this bill strikes. 
In the group of textile fabrics, of which I have spoken, reductions are 



GKEAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 373 

made upon the miinufactures of cotton which will stop three-quarters of 
the cotton mills of the country, and hopelessly prostrate the business. 
Still greater violence is done to the wool and woolen interests. The at- 
tempt has been made to show that the business of wool-growing has de- 
clined in consequence of our present law, and the fact has been jiointed 
out that the number of sheep has been steadily falling off in the Eastern 
States. The truth is that sheep-culture in the United States was 
never in so healthy a condition as it is to-day. In 1860 our total wool 
product was sixty millions of pounds. In 1877 we produced two hun- 
dred and eight millions of pounds. 

" It is true that there is not now so large a number of sheep in the 
Eastern Suites as there were a few years since ; but the center of that in- 
dustry has been shifted. Of the thirty -five and a half millions of sheep now 
in the United States, fourteen and a half millions are in Texas and the 
States and Territories west of the Rocky Mountains. California alone 
has six and a half millions of sheep. Not the least important feature of 
this interest is the facility it offers for cheap animal food. A great French 
statesman has said: ' It is more important to provide food than clothing.' 
and the growth of sheep accomplishes both objects. Ninety-five i)er cent, 
of all the woolen fabrics manufactured in this country are now made of 
native wool. 

" The tariff on -wools and woolens was adopted in 1867, after a most 
careful and thorough examination of both the producing and manufactur- 
ing interests. It was the result of an adjustment between the farmers 
and manufacturers, and has been advantageous to both. A small reduc- 
tion of the rates could be made without injury. 

"Both of these interests consented to a reduction, and submitted thei?- 
plan to the Committee of Ways and Means. But instead of adopting it. 
the committee have struck those interests down, and i)Ut a dead level ad 
valorem duty upon all wools. The chairman tells us that the committee 
had sought to do away with the ad valorem system, because it gave rise 
to fraudulent invoices and undervaluation. Yet on the interest that 
yields twenty millions of revenue, he proposes to strike down the specific 
duties and i)ut the interest upon one dead level of ad valorem duty with- 
out regard to quaUty. 

"I would not introduce sectional topics in this discussion, hut I must 
notice one curious feature of this bill. In the great group of provi.s- 
ions, on which nearly fifty millions of revenue are paid into the Trens- 



In y 

374 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

ury, I find that thirty-seven millions of that amount come from imported 
sugar. No one would defend the levying of so heavy a tax upon a nec- 
essary arficle of food were it not that a great agricultural interest is 
thereby protected, and that interest is mainly confined to the State of 
Louisiana. I am glad that the Government has given its aid to the 
kState, for not a pound of sugar could be manufactured there if the tariff 
law did not protect it. 

"As the law now stands, the average ad valorem duty on sugar is 
sixty-two and one-half per cent. But what has this bill done? The 
complaint is made by its advocates that the rates are now too high. The 
rates on all dutiable articles average about forty-two per cent. ; yet on 
sugar the average is sixty-two and one-half per cent., greatly above the 
average. This bill puts up the average duty on sugar to about seventy 
per cent. This one interest, which is already protected by a duty much 
higher than the average, is granted a still higher rate, while other inter- 
ests, now far below the average rate, are put still lower. Metals, that 
now average but thirty-six per cent, ad valorem, far less than the general 
average — but little more than half of the rate on sugar — are cut down 
still more, while the protection of the sugar interest is made still higher. 

"If the planters of Louisiana were to get the benefit there would be 
some excuse for the increase; but what is the fact? One thousand four 
hundred and fifteen million pounds of sugar were imported into this 
country last year, but not one pound of refined sugar ; every pound was 
imported in the crude form, going into the hands of about twenty-five 
gentlemen, mostly in the city of New York, who refine every pound of 
this enormous quantity of imj)orted sugar. This bill increases the rates 
on the high grades of sugar far more than on the lower grades, and makes 
the importation of any finished sugar impossible. It strengthens and 
makes absolute the monopoly already given to the refining interest ; yet 
we are told that this is a revenue-reform tariff. 

"Before closing I wish to notice one thing which I believe has not 
been mentioned in this debate. A few years ago we had a considerable 
premium on gold, and as our tariff duties were paid in coin, there was 
thus created an increase in the tariff rates. In 1875, for instance, the 
average currency value of coin was one hundred and fourteen cents ; in 
1876, one hundred and eleven cents; in 1877, one hundred and four 
cents. Now, thanks to the resumption law and the rate of our exchanges 
and credit, the premium on gold is almost down to zero. But this fall in 



/ 



GEEAT QUESTIONS AND GKEAT ANSWERS. 375 

the premium has operated as a steady reduction of the tariff rates, be- 
. cause the duties were paid iu gold and the goods were sold in currency. 

"Now, when gentlemen say that the rates were high a few years ago, it 
should be remembered that they have been falling year by year, as the 
price of gold has been coming down. "When, therefore, gentlemen criti- 
cise the rates as fixed in the law of 1872, they should remember that 
the fall in the premium on gold has wrought a virtual reduction of 
fourteen per cent, in the tariff rates. 

"Mr. Chairman, the Committee of Ways and Means has done a large 
amount of work on this bill. But the views which have found expres- 
sion in his bill must be criticised without regard to personal considera- 
tion. A bill so radical in its character, so dangerous to our business 
prosperity, would work infinite mischief at this time, when the country 
is just recovering itself from a long period of depression and getting 
again upon solid ground, just coming up out of the wild sea of panic 
and distress which has tossed us so long. 

"Let it be remembered that twenty-two per cent, of all the laboring 
people of this country are artisans engaged iu manufactures. Their cul- 
ture has been fostered by our tariff laws. It is their pursuits and the 
skill which they have developed that produced the glory of our centen- 
nial exhibition. To them the country owes the splendor of the position it 
holds before the world more than to any other equal number of our citizens. 
If this bill becomes a law, it strikes down their occupation and throws 
into tlie keenest distress the brightest and best elements of our popula- 
tion. 

" It is not simply a stalking-horse upon which gentlemen can leap to show 
their horsemanship in debate; it is not an innocent lay-figure upon which 
gentlemen may spread the gaudy wares of their rhetoric without harm ; 
but it is a great, dangerous monster, a very Polyphemus which stalks 
through tlie land. Monstrumhorrendnm, informe, higem, eui lumen udemp- 
tum. If its eye be not out, let us take it out and end the agony." [Ap- 
plause on the Republican side.] 

But tlie correlative of revenue is expeiidituro. Only one 
other man of tliis age ever attempted a philosophy of national 
expenditure besides G a infield— that was Gladstone. No other 
American ever attempted to regulate appropriations by a 
philosophical principle. No other man ever attempted to re- 



frfl 

IC 376 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

duce the fabulous and irregular outlay of the Government to a 
science. Of Garfield's studies in this direction we have spoken 
elsewhere. On January 23, 1872, upon the introduction of his 
first bill as Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations he 
delivered an elaborate speech on the subject of 

PUBLIC EXPENDITURES 

" It is difficult to discuss expenditures comprehensively without dis- 
cussing also the revenues ; but I shall on this occasion allude to the reve- 
nues only on a single point. Kevenue and the expenditure of revenue 
form by far the most important element in the government of modern 
nations. Revenue is not, as some one has said, the friction of a govern- 
ment, but rather its motive power. Without it the machinery of a gov- 
ernment can not move ; and by it all the movements of a government 
are regulated. The expenditure of revenue forms the grand level from 
which all heights and depths of legislative action are measured. The in- 
crease and the diminution of the burdens of taxation depend alike upon 
their relation to this level of expenditures. That level once given, all 
other policies must conform to it and be determined by it. The expen- 
diture of revenue and its distribution, therefore, form the best test of the 
health, the wisdom, and the virtue of a government. Is a government 
corrupt ? that corruption will inevitably, sooner or later, show itself at 
the door of the treasury in demands for money. There is scarcely a 9on- 
ceivable form of corruption or public wrong that does not at last present 
itself at the cashier's desk and demand money. The legislature, there- 
fore, that stands at the cashier's desk and watches with its Argus eyes 
the demands for payment over the counter, is most certain to see all the 
forms of public rascality. At that place, too, we may feel the Nation's 
pulse; we may determine whether it is in the delirium of fever or 
whether the currents of its life are flowing with the steady throbbings of 
health. What could have torn down the gaudy fabric of the late gov- 
ernment of France so eflfectually as the simple expedient of compiling 
and publishing a balance sheet of the expenditures of Napoleon's govern- 
ment, as compared with the expenditures of the fifteen years which pre- 
ceded his reign ? A quiet student of finance exhibited the fact that dur- 
ing fifteen years of Napoleon's reign the expenditures of his government 
had been increased by the enormous total of three hundred and fifty mill- 
ion dollars in gold per annum. 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 377 

HOW SHALL EXPENDITURES BE GAUGED? 

" Such, in my view, are the relations which the expenditures of the 
revenue sustain to the honor and safety of the nation. How, then, shall 
they be regulated? By what gauge shall we determine the amount of 
revenue that ought to be expended by a nation ? This question is full of 
difficulty, and I can hope to do little more than offer a few suggestions 
in the direction of its solution. 

"And, first, I remark that the mere amount of the aj)propriations is 
in itself no test. To say that this government is expending two hundred 
and ninety-two million dollars a year, may be to say that we are penuri- 
ous and niggardly in our expenditures, and may be to say that we are 
lavish and prodigal. There must be some ground of relative judgment, 
some test by which we can determine whether expenditures are reasona- 
ble or exorbitant. It has occurred to me that two tests can be applied. 

TEST OF POPULATION. 

"The first and most important is the relation of expenditure to the 
population. In some ratio corresponding to the increase of population it 
may be reasonable to increase the expenditures of a government. This 
is the test usually applied in Europe. In an official table I have before 
me the expenditures of the British government for the last fifteen years, 
I find the statement made over against the annual average of each year 
of the expenditure per capita of the population. The average expenditure 
per capita for that period, was two pounds, seven shillings and seven pence, 
or about twelve dollars in gold, with a slight tendency to decrease each 
year. In our own country, commencing with 1830 and taking the years 
when the census was taken, I find that the exj)enditures, per capita, ex- 
clusive of payments on the principal and interest of the public debt Avere 
as follows: 

In 1830 $1 03 

In 1840 1 -11 

In 1850 1 <jO 

In 1860 1 ^-^" 

In 1870 -1 2<i 

or, excluding jiensions, three dollars and fifty-two cents. No doubt this 
test is valuable. But how shall it be applied ? Shall tlie increase of ex- 
penditures keep pace with the i)opulati<)n? We know that population 
tends to increase in a geometrical ratio, that is, at a per cent, compounded 



378 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD 

annually. If the normal increase of expenditures follow the same law, 
we might look forward to the future with alarm. It is manifest, how- 
ever, that the necessity of expenditures does not keep pace with the mere 
increase of numbers; and while the total sum of money expended must 
necessarily be greater from year to year, the amount -per capita ought in 
all well-regulated governments in time of peace to grow gradually less. 

TEST OF TERRITORIAL SETTLEMENT AND EXPANSION. 

" But in a country like ours there is another element besides popula- 
tion that helps to determine the movement of expenditures. That ele- 
ment can hardly be found in any other country. It is the increase and 
settlement of our territory, the^ organic increase of the nation by the ad- 
dition of new States. To begin with the original thirteen States, and 
gauge expenditure till now by the increase of population alone, would be 
manifestly incorrect. But the fact that there have been added twenty- 
four States, and that we now have nine territories, not including Alaska, 
brings a new and important element into the calculation. It is impos- 
sible to estimate the effect of this element upon expenditures. But if we 
examine our own records from the beginning of the Government, it will 
appear that every great increase of settled territory has very considerably 
added to the expenditures. 

"If these reflections be just, it will follow that the ordinary movement 
of our expenditures depends upon the action of two forces: first, the 
natural growth of population, and second, the extension of our territory 
and the increase in the number of our States. Some day, no doubt — 
and I hope at no distant day— we shall have reached the limit of terri- 
torial expansion. I hope we have reached it now, except to enlarge the 
number of States within our borders; and when we have settled our un- 
occupied lands, when we have laid down the fixed and certain bounda- 
ries of our country, then the movement of our expenditure in time of 
peace will be remitted to the operation of the one law,^ the increase of 
population. That law, as I have already intimated, is not an increase 
by a per cent, compounded annually, but by a per cent, that decreases 
annually. No doubt the expenditures wall always increjise from year to 
year ; but they ought not to increase by the same per cent, from year to 
year ; the rate of increase ought gradually to grow less. 

EXPENDITURES OF ENGLAND, 

"In England, for example, where the territory is fixed, and they are 



GKEAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 379 

remitted to the single law of increase of population, the increase of ex- 
penditure during the last fifteen years of peace has heen only ahout one 
and three-quarter per cent. com])()unded annually. I believe nobody has 
made a very careful estimate of the rate in our country; our growth has 
been too irregular to afford data for an accurate estimate. But a gen- 
tleman who has given much attention to the subject expressed to me the 
belief that our expenditures in time of peace have increased about eight 
per cent, compounded annually, I can hardly believe it; yet I am sure 
that somewhere between that and the English rate will be found our rate 
of increase in times of peace. I am aware that such estimates as these 
are unsatisfactory, and that nothing short of the actual test of experience 
can determine the movements of our expenditures; but these suggestions 
which have resulted from some study of the subject, I offer for the reflec- 
tion of those who care to follow them out. 

EFFECn'S OF WAR ON EXPENDITURES. 

"Thus far I have considered the expenditures that arise in times of 
peace. Any view of this subject would be incomplete that did not in- 
clude a consideration of the effect of war upon national expenditures. I 
have spoken of what the rate ought to be in time of peace, for carrying 
on a government. I will next consider the effect of war on the rate of 
increase. And here we are confronted with that anarchic element, the 
plague of nations, which Jeremy Bentham called ' mischief on the largest 
scale.' After the fire and blood of the battle-fields have disappeared, no- 
where does war show its destroying power so certainly and so relentlessly 
as in the columns which represent the taxes and expenditures of the na- 
tion. Let me illustrate this by two examples. 

"In 1792, the year preceding the commencement of the great war 
against Napoleon, the expenditures of Great Britain were less than 
twenty million pounds sterling. 

" During the twenty-fi)ur years that elapsed, from the commencement 
of that wonderful struggle until its close at Waterloo, in 1815, the ex- 
penditures rose by successive bounds, until, in one year near the close of 
the war, it reached the enormous sum of one hundred and six million 
seven hundrd and fifty thousand j)oun(ls. 

"The unusual increase of the public debt, added to the natural growth 
of expenditures from causes already discussed, made it inip.)ssihlc for 
England ever to reach her old level of expenditure. It to<.k twenty 
years after Waterloo to reduce expenditures from seventy-seven million 



K 380 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds, the annual average of the 
second decade of the century, to forty-five million seven hundred and 
fifty thousand pounds, the expenditure for 1835. 

"This last figuie was the lowest England has known during the pres- 
ent century. Then followed nearly forty years of peace, from Waterloo 
to the Crimean war in 1854. The figures for that period may be taken 
to represent the natural growth of expenditures in England During that 
period tlie expenditures increased, in a tolerably uniform ratio, from forty- 
five million seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds, the amount for 
1835,'to about fifty-one million seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds, 
the average for the five years ending 1853-54. Tliis increase was about 
four million dollars of our money per annum. Then came the Crimean 
war of 1854-1856, during one year of which the expenditures rose to 
eighty-four million five hundred thousand pounds. 

" Again, as after the Napoleonic war, it required several years for the 
expenditures of the kingdom to get down to the new level of peace, 
which level was much higher than that of the former peace. 

"Durhig the last ten years the expenditures of Great Britain have 
again been gradually increasing ; the average for the six years ending 
with March 81, 1871, being sixty-eight million seven hundred and fifty 
thousand pounds. 

WAR EXPENDITURES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

" As the second example of the eflTect of Avar on the movement of na- 
tional expenditures, I call attention to our own history. 

" Considering the ordinary expenses of the Government, exclusive of 
payments on the principal and interest of the public debt, the annual 
average may be stated thus : 

" Beginning with 1791, the last decade of the eighteenth century 
showed an annual average of three million seven hundred and fifty thou- 
sand dollars. During the first decade of the present century, the average 
was nearly five million five hundred thousand dollai's. Or, commencing 
with 1791, there followed twenty years of peace, during which the an- 
nual average of ordinary expenditures was more than doubled. Then 
followed four years, from 1812 to 1815, inclusive, in which the war with 
England swelled the average to twenty-five million five hundred thousand 
dollars. During the five years succeeding that war, the average was six- 
teen million five hundred thousand dollars, and it was not until 1821 that 
the new level of peace was reached. During the five years, from 1820 to 



/ c 

GEEAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 381 A 

1825, inclusive, the annual average was eleven million five hundred thou- 
sand dollars. From 1825 to 1830, it was thirteen million dollars. 
From 1830 to 1835, it was seventeen million dollars. From 1835 
to 1840, in which period occurred the Seminole war, it was thirty 
million five hundred thousand dollars. From 1840 to 1845, it was 
twenty -seven million dollars. From 1845 to 1850, during which occurred 
the Mexican war, it was forty million five hundred thousand dollars. 
From 1850 to 1855, it was fi)rty-seven million five hundred thousand 
dollars. From 1855 to June 30, 18G1, it was sixty-seven million dol- 
lars. From June 30, 1861, to June 30, 1866, seven hundred and thir- 
teen million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars ; and from June 
80, 1866, to June 30, 1871, the annual average was one hundred and 
eighty-nine million dollars. 

"It is interesting to inquire how far we may reasonably expect to go 
in the descending scale before we reach the new level of peace. "We 
have already seen that it took England twenty years after Waterloo be- 
fore she reached such a level. Our own experience has been peculiar in 
this, that our people have been impatient of debt, and have always de- 
terminedly set about the work of reducing it. 

DURATION OF WAR EXPENDITTIRES. 

" Throughout our history there may be seen a curious uniformity in 
the movement of the annual expenditures for the years immediately fol- 
lowing a war. We have not the data to determine how long it was, after 
the war of independence, before the expenditures ceased to decrease; 
that is, before they reached the point where their natural growth more 
than balanced the tendency to reduction of war expenditure; but in the 
years immediately following all our subsequent wars, the decrease has 
continued for a period almost exactly twice the length of the war itself. 

"After the war of 1812-15, the expenditures continued to decline for 
eight years, reaching the lowest point in 1823. 

" After the Seminole war, which ran through throe years, 1836,^ 1837, 
and 1838, the new level was not reached until 1844, six years after its 

close. 

" After the Mexican war, which lasted two years, it took four years, 

until 1852, to reach the new level of peace." 

Probably the most remarkable portion of this speech is tlie fol- 
lowing prophecy: 



Y 382 LIFE OF JAMES A. CxXRFIELP. 

WHEN SHALL WE REACH OUR NEW LEVEL OF EXPENDITURES? 

"It is, perhaps, unsafe to base our calculations for the future on these 
analogies; but the wars already referred to have been of such varied 
character, and their financial effects have been so uniform, as to make it 
not unreasonable to expect that a similar result will follow our late war. 
If so, the decrease of our ordinary expenditures, exclusive of the principal 
and interest of the public debt, will continue until 1875 or 1876. 

" It will be seen by an analysis of our expenditures, that, exclusive of 
charges on the public debt, nearly fifty million dollars are expendituras 
directly for the late war. Many of these expenditures will not again 
appear, such as the bounty and back pay of volunteer soldiers, and pay- 
ment of illegal captures of British vessels and cargoes. We may reason- 
ably expect that the expenditui-es for pensions will hereafter steadily 
decrease, unless our legislation should be unwarrantably extravagant. 
We may also expect a large decrease in expenditures for the internal 
revenue department. Possibly, we may ultimately be able to abolish the 
department altogether. In the accounting and disbursing bureaus of the 
treasury department, we may also expect a further reduction of the force 
now employed in settling war claims. 

" We can not expect so rapid a reduction of the public debt and its 
burden of interest as we have witnessed for the last three years; but 
the reduction will doubtless continue, and the burden of interest will con- 
stantly decrease. I know it is not safe to attempt to forecast the future ; 
but I venture to express the belief that if peace continues, the year 1876 
will witness our ordinary expenditures reduced to one hundred and 
twenty-five million dollars, and the interest on our public debt to ninety- 
five million dollars ; making our total expenditures, exclusive of payment 
on the principal of the public debt, two hundred and thirty million 
dollars. Judging from our own experience and from that of other 
nations, we may not hope thereafter to reach a lower figure. In making 
this estimate, I have assumed that there will be a considerable reduction 
of the burdens of taxation ; and a revenue not nearly so great in excess 
of the expenditures as we now collect." 

Seven years afterwards, in the June number (1879) of the North 
American Review, General Garfield quoted the above paragraphs 
from the speech of January, 1872, and called attention to the ful- 
fillment of his prediction in the following words: 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 



.383 






"Reviewing the subject in the light of subsequent experience, it will 
be seen that the progress of reduction of expenditures from the war level 
has been very nearly in accordance with these expectations of seven years 

ago. 

" The actual expenditures since the war, including interest on the 
public debt, as shown by the official record, were as follows: 



1865 $1,297,555,224 41 

1866 520,899,416 99 

1867 357,542,675 16 

1868 377,340,284 86 

1869 322,865,277 80 

1870 399,653,560 75 

1871 292,177,188 25 



1872 $277,517,962 67 

1873 290,345,245 33 

1874 287,133,873 17 

1875 274,623,392 84 

1876 258,459,797 33 

1877 238,660,008 93 

1878 236,964,326 80 



" Omitting the first of these years, in which the enormous payments to 
the army swelled the aggregate of expenses to 81,297,000,000, and begin- 
ning with the first full year after the termination of the war, it will be 
seen that the expenditures have been reduced, at first very rapidly, and 
then more slowly, from 1^520,000,000 in 1866 to about ^237,000,000 in 

1878. 

"The estimate quoted above was that in 1876 expenditures would be 
reduced to $230,000,000, including $95,000,000 for interest on the pub- 
lic debt. In 1877, one year later than the estimated date, the actual 
reduction had reached $238,000,000, including $97,000,000 for inter- 
est on the public debt. [He means the expenditures had been reduced 
to $238,000,000.] 

" It is evident that in 1877 we had very nearly reached the limit of 
possible reduction, for the aggregate expenditures of 1878 show a reduc- 
tion below that of the preceding year of less than $2,000,000 ; and the 
expenditures, actual and estimated, for the current year ending June 30, 
1879, are $240,000,000. It thus appears that 1878 was the turning- 
point from which, under the influence of the elements of normal growth, 
' we may expect a constant, though it ought to be a small, annual increase 
of expenditures." 

If anywhere there is to be found a more scientific statesmanship 
than this, the average man knows not the place to seek it out. 
Garfield had discovered the law of the increase and decrease of 
national expenditures. It was as fixed as the laws wiiich lengthen 
and shorten the day. Scientists agree that the laws of society are 



384 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

far more difficult of discovery and of demonstration than the laws 
of nature. Only one man in a generation makes any real advance 
in the study of those laws which pervade the affiiirs of men. In 
his philosophy of public expenditures, James A. Garfield was that 
man of his political generation. On March 5, 1874, in another 
speech on the same topic, he unfolded the philosophy and laws of 
growth of the public debt. As usual, it is an illumination of a 
vast and foggy subject. It is impossible to give, in our already 
crowded pages, even a synopsis of this address. 

There can be no question that Garfield was the most perfect 
master of the themes of revenue and expenditure in his generation. 
With the exception of the tariff, they were not questions which 
could be brought into politics. In their nature, they were so dry 
and complicated that the House itself, much less the people, knew 
but little of the enormous labor performed by General Garfield on 
the subject. He applied his immense energies to the task as 
cheerfully as if the questions were those of the next campaign, 
instead of being known only in the committee-room. His research 
would gain him no contemporary laurels, his toil bring him no 
applause. But he grappled with the monster of public debt, 
which had its clutch on England's throat, and was reaching toward 
the New Republic. He who knew so well how to thrill the audi- 
ence and shake the building with plausive thunders, embodied 
the results of his work in speeches, which his friends possibly 
thought impractical and certainly tiresome. They lie embalmed 
in the mighty mausoleum of the Congressional Record, hidden 
away from the prying eyes of mankind. Some future statesman, 
with more industry or genius than his contemporaries, will, per- 
chance, come with pick and shovel to excavate and disinter the 
buried chiklren of the brain. If so, like the recently-discovered 
remains at Mycense and Thebes, they will be pronounced of royal 
blood. 

We now pass to the last branch of the subject discussed in this 
chapter. This relates to the record of Garfield in relation to ques- 
tions concerning the general character and tendency of American 
institutions. 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 385 

This question opens the door to what would make a volume of 
General Garfield's speeches. Under a rigid necessity of condensa- 
tion, we can only give broken extracts from three addresses. 

On July 2, 1873, before the students of the Western Reserve 
College, at Hudson, Ohio, he spoke on — 

THE FUTURE OF THE REPUBLIC. 

" What do men mean when they predict the immortality of any thing 
earthly? 

" The first Napoleon was one day walking through the galleries of the 
Louvre, filled with the wonders of art which he had stolen from the con- 
quered capitals of Europe. As he passed the marvelous picture of Peter 
Martyr, one of the seven masterpieces of the world, he overheard an 
enthusiastic artist exclaim: ' Immortal work !' Turning quickly upon his 
heel, the Emperor asked: ' What is the average life of an oil-painting?' 
'Five hundred years,' answered the artist. 'Immortal!' the Corsican 
scornfully repeated as he passed on, thinking douhtless of Austerlitz and 
Marengo. Six years ago the wonderful picture of Peter IMartyr was dis- 
?blved in the flames of a burning church at Venice, and, like Austerlitz, 
i.s now only a memory and a dream. 

" When the great lyric poet of Rome ventured to predict immortality 
for his works, he could think of no higher human symbol of immortality 
than the Eternal City and her institutions, crowded with seven centuries 
of glorious growth; and so Horace declared that his verses would be 
remembered as long as the high-priest of Apollo and the silent vestal 
virgin should climb the steps of the Capitol. Fifteen centuries ago the 
sacred fires of Vesta went out, never to be rekindled. For a thousand 
years Apollo has had no shrine, no priest, no worshiper on the earth. 
The steps of the Capitol, and the temples that crowned it, live only in 
dreams, and to-day the antiquary digs and disputes among the ruins, 
and is unable to tell us where on the Capitoline hill the great citadel of 
Rome stood. 

"There is much in the history of dead empires to sadden and dis- 
courage our hope for the permanence of any human institution. But a 
deeper study reveals the fact that nations have perished only when their 
institutions have cea.sed to be serviceable to the human race; when their 
faith has become an empty form, and the destruction of the old is indispen- 
sable to the growth of the new. Growth is bcLlcr than pcrmancnco; and 
25 



386 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

permanent growth is better than all. Our faith is large in time; and we— 

" ' Doubt not through the ages, an increasing purpose runs, 

And the thoughts of men are widened by the process of the suns.' 

" It matters little what may be the forms of national institutions, if 
the life, freedom, and growth of society are secured. To save the life 
of a nation, it is sometimes necessary to discard the old form and make 
room for the new growth; for — 

" ' Old decays but foster new creations ; 
Bones and ashes feed the golden corn ; 
Fresh elixirs wander every moment 
Down the veins through which tlie live part feeds its child, the life unborn.' 

" There are two classes of forces whose action and reaction determine 
the condition of a nation — the forces of repression and expression. The 
one acts from without — limits, curbs, restrains. The other acts from 
within— expands, enlarges, propels. Constitutional forms, statutory lim- 
itations, conservative customs belong to the first. The free play of indi- 
vidual life, the opinion and action belong to the second. If these forces 
be happily balanced, if there be a wise conservation and correlation of 
both, a nation may enjoy the double blessing of progress and permanence. 

" How are these forces acting upon our nation at the present time? 

•' Our success has been so great hitherto, we have passed safely through 
so many perils which at the time seemed almost fatal, that we may assume 
that the Republic will continue to live and prosper, unless it shall be as- 
sailed by dangers which outnumber and outweigh the elements of its 
strength. It is idle to boast of what we are, and what we are to be, 
unless at the same time we compare our strength with the magnitude of 
our dangers. 

"What, then, are our dangers: and how can they be conquered? . . . 

" In the first place, our great dangers are not from without. We do 
not live by the consent of any other nation. We must look within to 
find the elements of danger. The first and most obvious of these is ter- 
ritorial expansion — overgrowth ; the danger that we shall break in pieces 
by our own weight. This has been the commonplace of historians and 
pubhcists for many centuries; and its truth has found many striking 
illustrations in the experience of mankind. But we have fair ground 
for believing that new conditions and new forces have nearly, if not 
wholly, removed the ground of this danger. Distance, estrangement, 
isolation have been overcome by the recent amazing growth in the means 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANS^VERS. 387 

of intercomrnunion. For political and industrial purposes, California 
and Massachusetts are nearer neighbors to-day than were Philadelphia 
and Boston in the days of the Revolution. The people of all our thirty- 
seven States know more of each other's affairs than the Vermonter knew 
of his Virginia neighbor's fifty years ago. It was distance, isolation, igno- 
rance of separate parts that broke the cohesive force of the great em- 
pires of antiquity. Public affairs are now more public, and private less 
private, than in former ages. The Railroad, the Telegraph, and the 
Press, have virtually brought our citizens, with their opinions and indus- 
tries, face to face; and they live almost in each other's sight. The 
leading political, social, and industrial events of this day will be re- 
ported and discussed at more than two millions of American breakfast- 
tables to-morrow morning. Public opinion is kept in constant exercise 
and training. It keejis itself constantly in hand— ready to approve, 
condenui, and command. It may be wrong, it may be tyrannical ; but 
it is all-pervading, and constitutes, more than ever before, a strong band 
of nationality. 

•'After all, territory is but the body of a nation. The people who 
inhabit its hills and its valleys are its soul, its spirit, its life. In them 
dwells its hope of immortality. Among them, if anywhere, are to be 
found its chief elements of destruction." 

In the latter part of the address, ho discussed I>ord Macaulay'g 
famous letter, in which he predicted that, with universal suifrage, 
our Republic was all sail and no ballast ; that when the country 
was populated like Europe, the Government would fall iu the in- 
evitable conflict between labor and capital. 

"With all my heart I repel that letter as false. My first answer is 
this: No man who has not lived among us can understand one thing 
about our institutions; no man who has been born and reared under mon- 
archical governments can understand the vast difference between theirs 
and ours. How is it in monarchical governments? Their society is one 
series of caste upon caste. Down at the bottom, like the granite rocks in 
the crust of the earth, lie the great body of laboring men. An English- 
man told me not long ago that in twenty-five years of careful study of 
the agricultural class of England, he had never known one who wa« 
born and reared in the ranks of farm laborers that rose above his dass 
and became a well-to-do citizen. That is a most terrible sentence, that 



388 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

three millions of people should lie at the bottom of society, with no power 
to rise. Above them the gentry, the hereditary capitalist ; above them, 
the nobility; above them, the royalty; and, crowning all, the sovereign 
— all impassable barriers of caste. 

" No man born under such institutions can understand the mighty 
difference between them and us in this country. Thank God, and thank 
the fathers of the Republic who made, and the men who carried out the 
promises of the Declaration, that in this country there are no classes, 
fixed and impassable. Here society is not fixed in horizontal layers, like 
the crust of the earth, but as a great New England man said, years ago, it 
is rather like the ocean, broad, deep, grand, open, and so free in all its parts 
that eveiy drop that mingles with the yellow sand at the bottom may 
rise through all the waters, till it gleams in the sunshine on the crest 
of the highest waves. So it is here in our free society, permeated with 
the light of American freedom. There is no American boy, however 
poor, however humble, orphan though he may be, that, if he have a clear 
head, a true heart, a strong arm, he may not rise through all the grades 
of society, and become the crown, the glory, the pillar of the State. 

"Again, in depicting the dangers of universal suffrage, Macaulay leaves 
wholly out of tlie account the great counterbalancing force of universal 
education. He contemplates the government delivered over to a vast 
multitude of ignorant, vicious men, who have learned no self-control, 
who have never comprehended the national life, and who will wield the 
ballot solely for personal and selfish ends. If this were indeed the nec- 
essary condition of Democratic communities, it would be difficult, perhaps 
impossible, to escape the logic of Macaulay's letter. And here is a real 
peril — the danger that we shall rely upon the mere extent of the suf- 
frage as a national safeguard. We can not safely, even for a moment, 
bse sight of the quality of the suffrage, which is more important than 
its quantity. 

******* 

" Our faith in the Democratic principle rests upon the belief that intel- 
ligent men will see that their highest political good is in liberty, regu- 
lated by just and equal laws; and that in the distribution of political 
power it is safe to follow the maxim, ' Each for all, and all for each.' 
We confront the dangers of the suffrage by the blessings of universal ed- 
ucation." 



GKEAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWEES. . 389 

We present next a brief extract from an address delivered Feb- 
ruary 11, 1879, 

ON THE RELATION OF THE GOVERNMENT TO SCIENCE. 

"What ought to be the relation of the National Governnient to sci- 
ence? AVhat, if any thing, ought we to do in the way of promoting science? 
For example, if Ave have the power, would it be wise for Congress to ap- 
propriate money out of the Treasury to employ naturalists to find out 
all that is to be known of our American birds. Ornithology is a delight- 
ful and useful study ; but would it be Avise for Congress to make an ap- 
propriation for the advancement of that science? In my judgment mani- 
festly not. We Avould thereby make one favored class of men the rivals 
of all the ornithologists Avho in their private way, folloAving the bent of 
their genius, may be Avorking out the results of science in that field. I 
have no doubt that an appropriation out of our Treasury for that pur- 
pose Avould be a positive injury to the adv^ancement of science, just as 
an appropriation to establish a church would Avork injury to religion. 

" Generally the desire of our scientific men is to be let alone to Avork 
in free competition Avith all the scientific men of the world; to develop 
their own results, and get the credit of them, each for himself; not to 
have the Government enter the lists as a rival of private enterprise. 

"As a general principle, therefore, the United States ought not to in- 
terfere in matters of science, but should leave its development to the 
free, voluntary action of our great third estate, the people themselves. 
"In this non-interference theory of the Government I do not go to the 
extent of saying that Ave should do nothing for education — for primary 
education. That comes-under another consideration— the necessity of the. 
nation to protect itself, and the consideration that it is cheaper and wiser 
to give education than to build jails. But I am speaking now of the 
higher sciences. 

"To the general principle I have stated, there are a few obvious ex- 
ceptions which should be clearly understood when we legislate on the 
subjtM't. In the first place tlie Government should aid all sorts of sci- 
entific inquiry that are necessary to the hitelligcnt exercise of its own 

functions. 

"For example, as we are authorized by the Constitution, and com- 
pelled by necessity, to build and maintain light-hou.ses on our coa.st and 
establish fog-signals, we are bound to make all necessary scientific in- 



S90 , LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

quiries in reference to light and its laws, sound and its laws — ^to do what- 
ever in the way of science is necessary to achieve the best results in 
lighting our coasts and warning our mariners of danger. So, when we 
are building iron-clads for our navy, or casting guns for our army, we 
ought to know all that is scientifically possible to be known about the 
strength of materials and the laws of mechanics which apply to such 
structures. In short, wherever in exercising any of the necessary func- 
tions of the Government, scientific inquiry is needed, let us make it to 
t*he fullest extent, and at the public expense. 

"There is another exception to the general rule of leaving science to 
the voluntary action of the people. Wherever any great popular interest, 
affecting whole classes, possibly all classes of the community, imj)eratively 
need scientific investigation, and private enterprise can not accomplish it, 
we may wisely intervene and help, where the Constitution gives us 
authority. For example, in discovering the origin of yellow fever, and 
the methods of preventing its ravages, the nation should do, for the 
good of all, what neither the States nor individuals can accftmplisli. I 
might perhaps include, in a third exception, those inquiries which, incon- 
sequence of their great magnitude and cost, can not be successfully riiade 
by private individuals. Outside these three classes of inquiries, the 
Government ought to keep its hands off, and leave scientific experiment 
and inquiry to the free competition of those bright, intelligent men whose 
genius leads them into the fields of research." 

Passing abruptly from valley to mountain-peak, we present the 
substance of one of the most characteristic and original speeches 
mentioned in this book. It was delivered Mai»ch 29, 1879. Thoujrh 
political in its immediate object, it will probably be remembered 
and quoted from as long as the name of Garfield lingers on the 
lips of men. The speaker states the question before the House 
better than any one else could do. 

REVOLUTION IN CONGRESS. 

"Let me, in the outset, state as carefully as I may, the precise situa- 
tion. At the last session, all our ordinary legislative work was done, in 
accordance with the usages of the House and the Senate, except as to two 
bills. Two of the twelve great appropriation bills for the support of the 
Government were agreed to in both Houses as to every matter of detail 



GKEAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 391 

concerning the appropriation proper. We were assured by the commit- 
tees of* conference in both bodies that there would be no difficulty hi ad- 
justing all differences in reference to the amount of money to bo appro- 
priated and the objects of its appropriation. But the House of Representa- 
tives proposed three measures of distinctly independent legi.-latiou ; one 
upon the Army Appropriation Bill, and two upon the Legislative Appro- 
priation Bill. The three grouped together arc briefly these : first, the 
substantial modification of certain sections of the law relating to the use 
of the army; second, the repeal of the jurors' test oath ; and third, the 
repeal of the laws regulating elections of members of Congress. 

" These three propositions of legislation were insisted upon by the House, 
but the Senate refused to adopt them. So far it was an ordinary pro- 
ceeding, one which occurs frequently in all legislative bodies. The Sen- 
ate said to us, through their conferees : 'We are ready to pass the ap- 
propriation bills, but are unwilling to pass, as riders, the three legislative 
measures you ask us to pass.' Thereupon the House, through its confer- 
ence committee, made the following declaration. And, in order that I 
may do exact justice, I read from the speech of the distinguished Sena- 
tor from Kentucky [Mr. Beck]: 

" ' The Democratic conferees on the part of the House seem determined 
that unless those rights were secured to the people — ' 

"Alluding to the three points I have named — ' in the bill sent to the 
Senate they would refuse, under their constitutional right, to make ap- 
propriations to carry on the Government, if the dominant majority in the 
Senate insisted upon the maintenance of these laws and rcfutscd to eoiiaent- 
to their appeal. 

"Then, after stating that if the position they had taken compelled an 
extra session, and that the new Congress would offer the repealing bill8 
separately, and forecasting what would happen when the new House 
should be under no necessity of coercing the Senate, he declared that — 

"'If, however, the President of the United States, in the exercise of 
the power vested in him, should see fit to veto the bills thus presented to 
him, . . . then I have no doubt those same amendments will be 
again made part of the appropriation bills, and it will be for the Presi- 
dent to determine whether he will block the wheels of Government an(i 
refuse to accept necessary appropriations rather than allow the represen- 
tatives of the people to repeal odious laws which they regard as subver- 
sive of their rights and privileges. . . . Whether tlial course is 



392 UFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

riglit or ^vrong, it will be adopted, and I Lave no doubt adhered to, no 
matter what happens with the appropriation bills.* 

*' That was the proposition made by the Deraocracy in Congress at the 
close of the Congress now dead. 

" Another distinguislied Senator [Mr. Thurman]— and I may properly 
refer to Senators of a Congress not now in existence— reviewing the situ- 
ation, declared, in still more succinct terms: 

'"We claim the right, which the House of Commons in England 
established after two centuries of contest, to say we will not grant the 
money of the people unless there is a redress of grievances.' 

"These propositions were repeated with various degrees of vehemence 
by the majority in the House. 

"The majoritv in the Senate and the minority on this floor expressed 
the deepest anxiety to avoid an extra session and to avert the catastrophe 
thus threatened — the stoppage of the Government. They pointed out 
the danger to the country and its business interests of an extra session 
of Congress, and expressed their willingness to consent to any compro- 
mise consistent with their views of duty which should be offered— not in 
the way of coercion but in the way of fair adjustment — and asked to be 
met in a spirit of just accommodation on the other side. Unfortunately 
no spirit of adjustment was manifested in reply to their advances. And 
now the new Congress is assembled : and after ten days of caucus delib- 
eration, the House of Representatives has resolved, substantially, to 
reaffirm the positions of its predecessors. 

THE VOLUNTARY POWERS OF THE GOVERNMENT. 

•' I had occasion, at a late hour of the last Congress, to say something 
on what may be called the voluntary element in our institutions. I spoke 
of the distribution of the powers of Government. First, to the nation; 
second, to the States ; and third, the reservation of power to the people 
themselves. 

"I called attention to the fact that under our form of government the 
most precious rights that men can possess on this earth are not delegated 
to the nation, nor to the States, but are reserved to the third estate— the 
people themselves. I called attention to the interesting fact that lately 
the chancellor of the German Empire made the declaration that it was 
the chief object of the existence of the German government to defend 
and maintain the religion of Jesus Christ — an object in reference to 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 393 

which our Congress is absolutely forbidden by the Constitution to legislate 
at all. Congress can establish no religion; indeed, can make no law 
respecting it, because in the view of our fathers — the foundei-s of our 
government — religion was too precious a right to intrust its interests by 
delegation to any body. Its maintenance was left to the voluntaiy action 
of the people themselves. 

" In continuation of that thought, I wish now to speak of the volun- 
tary element inside our Government — a topic that I have not often heard 
discussed, but one which appears to me of vital importance in any com- 
prehensive view of our institutions. 

" Mr. Chairman, viewed from the stand-point of a foreigner, our 
Government may be said to be the feeblest on the earth. From our 
standpoint, and with our experience, it is the mightiest. But why would 
a foreigner call it the feeblest? He can point out a half-dozen ways in 
which it can be destroyed without violence. Of course, all governments 
may be overturned by the sword; but there are several ways in which 
our Government may be annihilated without the firing of a gun. 

"For example, if the peoj^le of the United States should say we will 
elect no Representatives to the House of Representatives. Of course, 
this is a violent supposition; but suppose they do not, is there any 
remedy ? Does our Constitution provide any remedy whatever ? In two 
years there would be no House of Representatives ; of course no sujiport 
of the Government, and no Government. Suppose, again, the States 
should say, through their Legislatures, we will elect no Senators. Such 
abstention alone would absolutely destroy this Government; and our 
system provides no process of compulsion to prevent it. 

" Again, suppose the two Houses were assembled in tlieir usual order, 
and a majority of one, in this body or in the Senate should firmly band 
themselves together and say, we will vote to adjourn the moment the 
hour of meeting arrives, and continue so to vote at every session during 
our two years of existence; the Government would perish, and there is 
no provision of the Constitution to prevent it. Or again, if a majority 
of one of either body should declare that they would vote down, and did 
vote down, every bill to support the Government by appropriations, can 
you find in the whole range of our judicial or our executive autliority 
any remedy whatever? A Senator, or a member of this House is free, 
and may vote 'no,' on every proposition. Nothing but his oath and his 
honor restrains him. Not so with the executive and judicial officers. 



394 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

They have no power to destroy this Government. Let them travel an 
inch beyond the line of the law, and they fall within the power of im- 
peachment. But, against the people who create Kepresentatives ; against 
the Legislatures who create Senators ; against Senators and Rejiresenta- 
tives in these Halls, there is no power of impeachment; there is no 
remedy, if, by abstention or by adverse votes, they refuse to support the 
Government. 

" At a first view, it would seem strange that a body of men so wise as 
our fathers were, should have left a whole side of their fabric open to 
these deadly assaults; but on a closer view of the case their wisdom will 
appear. What was their reliance? This: The sovereign of this nation, 
the God-crowned and Heaven-anointed sovereign, in whom resides ' the 
State's collected will,' and to whom we all owe allegiance, is the people 
themselves. Inspired by love of country and by a deep sense of obliga- 
tion to perform every public duty ; being themselves the creators of all 
the agencies and forces to execute their own will, and choosing from 
themselves their representatives to express that will in the forms of law, 
it would have been like a suggestion of suicide to assume that any of 
these voluntary powers would be turned against the life of the Govern- 
ment. Public opinion — that great ocean of thought from whose level 
all heights and depths are measured — was trusted as a power amply able, 
and always willing, to guard all the approaches on that side of the Con- 
stitution from any assault on the life of the nation. 

" Up to this hour our sovereign has never failed us. There has never 
been such a refusal to exercise those ])rimary functions of sovereignty as 
either to endanger or cripple the Government; nor have the majority 
of the representatives of that sovereign in either House of Congress ever 
before announced their purpose to use their voluntary powers for its 
destruction. And now, for the first time in our history, and I will add 
for the first time for at least two centuries in the history of any English 
speaking nation, it is proposed and insisted upon that these voluntary 
powers shall be used for the destruction of the Government. I want it 
distinctly understood that the proposition which I read at the beginning 
of my remarks, and which is the programme announced to the American 
people to-day, is this : that if the House can not have its own way in 
certain matters, not connected with appropriations, it will so use, or 
refrain from using, its voluntary powers as to destroy the Government. 

" Now, Mr. Chairman, it has been said on the other side that when 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 395 y^ 

a demand for the redress of grievances is made, the authority that runs 
the risk of stopping and destroying the Government, is the one that 
resifts! the redress. Not so. If gentlemen will do me the honor to follow 
my thought for a moment more, I trust I will make this denial good. 

FREE CONSENT THE BASIS OF OUR LAWS. 

"Our theory of law is free consent. That is the granite foundation 
of our whole superstructure. Nothing in this Republic can be law 
without consent — the free consent of the House; the free consent of the 
Senate ; the free consent of the Executive, or, if he refuse it, the free 
consent of two-thirds of these bodies. Will any man deny that? Will 
anv man challenge a line of the statement that free consent is the foun- 
dation rock of all our institutions ? And yet the programme announced 
two "Weeks ago was that if the Senate refused to consent to the demand 
of the House, the Government shouM stop. And the proposition was 
then, and the programme is now, that, although there is not a Senate 
to be coerced, there is still a third independent branch in the legislative 
power of the Government whose consent is to be coerced at the peril of 
the destruction of this Government; that is, if the President, in the 
discharge of his duty, shall exercise his plain constitutional right to 
refuse liis consent to this proposed legislation, the Congress will so use 
its voluntary powers as to destroy the Government. Tliis is the proposi- 
tion which we confront ; and we denounce it as revolution. 

" It makes no difference, Mr. Chairman, what the issue is. If it 
were the simplest and most inoffensive proposition in the world, yet if 
you demand, as a matter of coercion, that it shall be adopted against 
the free consent prescribed in the Constitution, every fair-minded man in 
America is bound to resist you as much as though his own life depended 
upon his resistance. 

"Let it be understood that I am not arguing the merits of any one 
of the three amendments. I am discussing the proposed metliod of leg- 
islation ; and I declare that it is against the Constitution of our country. 
It is revolutionary to the core, and is destructive of the fundamental 
element of American liberty, the free consent of all the powers that 
unite to make laws. 

" In opening this debate, I challenge all comers to show a single 
instance in our history where this consent has been coerced. This is the 
great, the paramount issue, which dwai-fs all others into insigniflcance. 



p. 396 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

Victor Hugo said, iu his description of the battle of Waterloo, that the 
struggle of the two armies was like the wrestling of two giants, when a 
chip under the heel of one might determine the victory. It may be that 
this amendment is the chip under your heel, or it may be .that it is the 
chip on our shoulder. As a chip it is of small account to you or to us; 
but when it represents the integrity of the Constitution and is assailed 
by revolution, we fight for it as if it were a Koh-i-noor of purest water. 
[Applause.] 

" The proposition now is, that after fourteen years have passed, and not 
one petition from one American citizen has come to us asking that this 
law be repealed ; while not one memorial has found its way to our desks 
complaining of the law, so far as I have heard, the Democratic House 
of Representatives now hold if they are not permitted to force upon 
another House and upon the Executive against their consent the repeal 
of a law thatDeuiocrats made, this refusal shall be considered a sufficient 
ground for starving this Government to death. That is the proposition 
which we denounce as revolution. [Applause on the Republican side.] 

"And here I ask the forbearance of gentlemen on the other side while 
I offer a suggestion which I make with reluctance. They will bear me 
. witness that I have in many ways shown my desire that the wounds of the 
war should be healed; that the grass that has grown green over the 
graves of both armies might symbolize the returning spring of friendship 
and peace between citizens who were lately in arms against each other. 

" But I am compelled by the necessities of the case to refer to a chapter 
of our recent history. The last act of Democratic domination in this 
Capitol, eighteen years ago, was striking and dramatic, perhai)s heroic. 
Then the Democratic party said to the Republicans, 'If you elect the 
man of your choice as President of the United States we will shoot your 
Government to death ;' and the people of this country, refusing to be 
coerced by threats or violence, voted as they pleased, and lawfully elected 
Abraham Lincoln President of the United States. 

" Then your leaders, though holding a majority in the other branch of 
Congress, were heroic enough to withdraw from their seats and fling down 
the gage of mortal battle. We called it rebellion ; but we recognized it 
as courageous and manly to avow your purpose, take all the risks, and 
fio-ht it out on the open field. Notwithstanding your utmost eff)rts to 
destroy it, the Government w^as saved. 

"To-day, after eighteen years' defeat, the book of your domination is 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT A.NSWIORS. 397 ^ 

again opened, and your first act awakens every bitter memory, and threat- 
ens to destroy the confidence which your professions of })atriotisni inspired. 
You turned down a leaf of the history that recorded your last act of 
power in 1861, and you have now signalized your return to power by be- 
ginning a second chapter at the same page; not tliis time by a heroic 
act that declares war on the battle-field, but you say if all the legislative 
powers of the Government do not consent to let you tear certain lawa 
out of the statute-book, you Avill not shoot our Government to death as 
you tried to do in the first chapter; but you declare that if we do not 
consent against our will, if you can not coerce an independent branch 
of this Government against its will, to allow you to tear from tlie statute- 
books some laws put there by the will of the people, you will starve the 
Government to death. [Great applause on the Republican side.] 

"Between death on the field and death by starvation, I do not know 
that the American people will see any great difference. The end, if 
successfully reached, would be death in either case. Gentlemen, you 
have it in your power to kill this Government; you have it in your 
power by withholding these two bills, to smite the nerve-centers of our 
Constitution with the paralj^sis of death ; and you have declared your 
purpose to do this, if you can not break down that fundamental element 
of free consent which, up to this hour, has always ruled in the legisla- 
tion of this Government," 

The question stated at the beginning of this chapter is : Was 
Garfield a Statesman? In view of what the reader has perused 
since that question was put, it must at this point be restated— Was 
Garfield wo^ a Statesman? The burden of proof has shifted. It 
is, of course, too soon to form a oomj)lete estimate of Garfield's 
stature. We arc too near to the man we loved. It will be for 
some future generation, farther removed from the spell of his 
name, and more able calmly to contomj)late his life apart from the 
bloody death. This is the task for the historian of the future. 

But what we say enters into the contemporary estimate of the 
dead President's life and work. AVhile the relative height of the 
moinitain peak can only be told by viewing it from a long dis- 
tance, where the entire range pictures its upper outline on the eye, 
the people who dwell at the foot of the mountain know it a.s the 
highest of their neighborhood. Moreover, some of the strongest 



•f T 



398 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

objections to the contemporary estimates of a public man are en- 
tirely wanting in the present case. One of these is the popularity 
of his opinions or achievements. Men are apt to overestimate the 
abilities of a man who agrees with them. But time and again, on 
different questions, as in the currency and the enforcement act, the 
Wade-Davis manifesto, and the defense of Bowles and Milligan, 
we have seen General Garfield, not merely opposing, but openly 
defying the opinions of the people who elected him. When he 
thought a thing was true, no personal consideration could affect his 
public utterance. Such a spectacle is rare indeed in American politics. 
Another reason why the present contemporary estimate of Gar- 
field is more likely than usual to pass into history is that, in a 
sense, the vindication of his policy is already accomjdished. When 
Cromwell died his work was incomplete. It was only oue act in 
the great drama of the struggle against kings. The residt was 
unknown at tiie tiuie. Other fields were to run red with i)atriot 
blood, other monarchs to expire on the scaffold, before the solution 
of the deadly struggle should api)ear. It was uncertain whether 
any other government than mouarchy was possible. No man was 
wise enough to tell, at Cromwell's death, whether he had advanced 
or retarded civilization and progress. But this is a more rapid 
age. Events hurry on quickly. The questions growing out of the 
Civil War are very largely settled already. The historic genius 
whicii sits in judgment u|)on men and institutions is no longer in 
doubt as to those questions. Similarly, too, the stupendous prob- 
lem of national finance, to which Garfield devoted su(rh herculean 
labor, has reached its solution. It may be that all men are not 
willing to surrender yet, but beyond a doubt the return to a specie 
basis, and the wonderful improvement of the times following it, 
are a vindication of General Garfield's statesmanship. It is the 
same with his position on the Force Bill and the Tariff. Some 
things, however, are still incomplete. The railway problem and 
the perpetuity of American institutions the future alone can pass 
upon; l)ut these are the exceptions. The completeness of ISIr. 
Lincoln's work at the time of his assassination was not generally 
recoo-nized, but we see it now. So with Garfield's labors. They 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 399 ."^ 

were in a sense complete. AVe may pass judgment upon thcni. 
The vindication of history is already at hand. 

There is still another reason why the contemporary estimate of 
James A. Garfield is likely to become permaneut. It is heeause 
the field of his principal achievements was not one of ])oi)ular in- 
terest. It was not one wdiich takes hold of the ])cople's hearts, 
and sweeps the popular judgment from its moorings. It lacked 
the glamour of military fame. The present age will hand down 
to posterity the fame of mighty soldiers, but tlieir glory must be 
viewed with some reserve, some mistrust for the present. 

Julius Caesar, who was assassinated as a tyraut, now takes his 
place at the head of all secular history. Napoleon Bonaparte, the 
mention of wdiose name has, for three quarters of a century, been 
enougii to convulse Paris and fill every wall with placards and 
everv street with barricades, is likely to become the most odious 
figure of modern times. Garfield's chosen field of work, that where 
his fame must rest, was to the careless masses dull. Men grow 
excited over battles, but not a pulse beats higher over a computa- 
tion of interest on the public debt. The stories of marches and 
sieges thrill the reader a thousaud years after every combatant has 
been vanquished by the black battalions of Death. But the most 
eloquent orator in America finds it difficult to hold an audience 
with the discussion of the tariff list or of public expenditures or 
of the currency, even when every man in the audience knows that 
his pocket is touched. If such discussions are thrown into news- 
paper editorials they are but little read. No argument, however 
powerful, on the flillacy of fiat money ever drew a tear or roused 
a cheer. No table of the reduction of public expenditure is ever 
greeted with huzzas. When the news of a victory comes, every 
corner has a bonfire and every window an illumination. But the 
change of the l)aLance of trade in our favor only awakens a (pnet 
satisfaction in the merchant's heart as he glances through thcniorn- 
iug papers. A new kind of gun attracts world-wide attention; it 
is talked over at every break flifit-tabie and described in every 
paper, but a new theory'of surplus and deficits in tlic public treas- 
ury \a utterly unnoticed. We see no flushed assemblies strammg 



400 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

to catch every word that falls from the orator's lips as he discusses 
the tariff ou sugar or quinine. But when Kearney shouts his 
hoarse note of defiance to capital, the street is packed with list- 
ening thousands. 

Hence it is that the man who significantly whispers " Gar- 
field is overestimated " is more likely to be wrong than right. 
There is no tide of popular excitement over his work. The 
calm conviction of his abilities is a different thing from the fe- 
verish hurrahs of a campaign. In 1859 liis old neighbors in 
his county had this conviction when they sent him to the State 
Senate. From the county, this spread to his Congressional 
district; from the district to the State of Ohio; from Ohio to 
the Union. It was gradual, and sure. 

Garfield's speeches must be the foundation for his fame. To 
these history will turn as a basis for its estimate. The first 
thing which is to be said of them, is that they dealt with the. real 
problems of the epoch. That he was a great orator is true; that 
he was much more than this is equally true. While other men 
busied themselves with political topics Garfield took hold of 
the great non-political problems of the time. lie refused to 
view them from a partisan or a personal stand-point. He grap- 
pled with the leviathans of reconstruction, tariflT, and cur- 
rency in the spirit of the statesman. That he was always 
right, we are not prepared to say; that be was right in his 
views on the great questions above mentioned, that with re- 
gard to them he was a leader of leaders, seems hardly to admit 
of a doubt. He was so radical in opinion that on almost every 
question he was ahead of his party and the country. This was 
the case in his arguments on the status of the rebel States, and 
what ought to be done with them; in his arguments in favor 
of a reduction of the tariti" as prices declined after the Avar, and 
in his discussion of the currency and banking problems. Yet 
80 nearly right was he that in every one of these instances 
Congress and the country gradually moved up to and occu- 
pied the position which he had taken in advance of them. 

On the other hand, he was so conservative in practice that 



GEE AT QUESTIONS AND GREAT ANSWERS. 401 "^ 

on no question was he ever an extremist. While he was a 
strong believer in the nationality of the Republic, and its pow- 
ers of self-preservation, he faced the entire North in his oppo- 
sition to the provisions of the "Force Bill," for the suspension 
of the writ of habeas corpus and the declaration of martial 
law in a country bleeding at every wound from war, but in a 
state of peace. Let no reader omit his speech of April 4, 1871. 
We say it the more willingly because at the time we thought 
Garfield was wrong. While he was a protectionist, he believed 
in a tariff which avoided both extremes. While he was an 
original and unintermittent hard-money man, he believed in 
the necessity of an elastic volume of currency. As the end of 
resumption forbade inflation, he demanded that every part 
of the country should have its share of banks, and the drafts 
and checks which they threw into the circulation. 

Of the variety as well as the quantity of his work, men will 
not soon cease to wonder. There were few who could equal 
him in the discussion of any one of the great topics of the day, 
much less all of them. His name and fame can never be iden- 
tified with any single question or measure, for he displayed the 
same ability on every subject alike. 

In other respects he also difiered from the men around him. 
lie was a scholar in the broadest sense. His speeches are abso- 
lutely unequaled anywhere for their scientific method. In their 
philosophical discussions they were the product of the ripest 
scholarship; in their practical suggestions and arguments, they 
were, they are the product of the highest statesmanship. 

Finally, a man of more spotless honor and loftier integrity 
never trod the earth than James A. Garfield. He lived in an 
atmosphere of purity and unselfishness, which, to the average 
man, is an unknown realm. After all, there are men enough 
with intellect in politics, but two few with character. An es- 
timate of Garfield would be incomplete which failed to include 
the inflexible honesty of the great orator and legislator, 
whether in aflairs public or private. History shows that whde 
no institutions ever decayed because of the intellectual weak- 
20 



y 402 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

ness of the people among which they flourished, empire after 
empire has perished from the face of the earth through the 
decay of morals in its people and its pubUc men. History 
repeats itself. What has been, will be. Name after name of 
the great men of the new Republic is stained with private im- 
morality and public crime. The noblest part of Garfield, with 
all his genius, was his spotless character. There was, there is, 
no greater, purer, manlier man. 

" His tongue was framed to music, 
His hand was armed with skill, 
His face was the mold of beauty, 
And his heart the throne of wilL" 



/9r 

THE CLlMx\.X OF 1880.— POLITICAL PARTIES. 403 - 



CHAPTER X. 

THE CLIMAX OF 1880. 

THE fathers and founders of the Republic had no suspicion 
of the form which American politics has assumed. The 
thing which we know as a political party is new under the 
sun. All ages and countries have had parties, sects; hut no 
other country or age ever had any thing like what America 
understands by the word party. When we speak of a party, 
we do not have in mind a mere sect, or class, distinguished 
by peculiar opinions, and composed of individuals whose only 
bond of union is their harmony of opinion, passion, or preju- 
dice. We do not mean a caste, nor a peculiar section of 
American society, nor a portion of the masses, whose birth, 
condition, and surroundings predestine them to take a tradi- 
tional sort of a view of political affairs, which they hold in 
common with their parents and their fellows. This was what 
Rome, in the days of her Republic, understood by the name 
of party. Patrician and plebeian stood not merely for opinion, 
but for more — for birth, heritage, and station. When there 
was an election, it was a rout, a rabble, without organiza- 
tion, work, or object. Rich and poor were arrayed against 
each other; the public offices were the glittering prize. But 
they were captured more by seditions, revolts, cowps d'etat, 
than by the insinuating arts of the wire-puller. The same 
thing is largely true of England and France, although less so 
lately than formerly. 

But in America by a political party, we mean an organism, 
of which the life is, in the beginning at least, an opinion or 
set of opinions. We mean an institution as perfectly organ- 
ized as the government itself; and taking hold of the people 
much more intimately. We mean an organization so power' 



404 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

fill that the government is in its hands but a toy; so des- 
potic that it has but one penalty for treason — political death; 
so much beloved, that -while a few men in a few widely sep- 
arated generations make glorious and awful sacrifices for 
their country, nearly all the men of every generation lend 
themselves, heart and soul, to the cause of party. A political 
party raises, once in four years, drilled armies, more numer- 
ous than any war ever called forth. If the battalions wear 
no uniform but red shirt and cap, and carry no more deadly 
weapon than the flaming torch, they are, nevertheless, as 
numerous, as well drilled, and as powerful as the glistening 
ranks of Gettysburg or Chickamauga. They, too, fight for 
the government — or against it. A political party has its 
ofiicial chief, its national legislature or " committee," its state, 
county, township, ward, and precinct organizations. It is 
stupendous. The local organization has in its secret rooms 
lists containing the name of every voter, with an analysis of 
his political views ; if they are wavering, a few significant 
remarks on how he can be "reached." The county and state 
organizations have their treasuries, their system of taxation 
and revenue, their fields of expenditure, and their cries of rob- 
bery, reform, and retrenchment. In the secret committee 
rooms are laid deep and sagacious plans for carrying the elec- 
tion. In some States, the old, crude ways of sedition, driving 
away of voters, and stufllng the poll are still followed; but 
in most of the States prevail arts and methods so mysterious, 
so secret, that none but the expert politician knows what 
they are. 

A political party has other than financial resources. It owns 
newspapers — manufacturers of public sentiment. It makes the 
men that make it. It controls offices, and places of trust and 
profit. It has all the powers of centralization. One man in 
a State is at the head of the organism. He is an autocrat, 
a czar, a sultan. At the crack of his finger the political 
head of his grand vizier falls under the headsman's ax. The 
party has in its service the most plausible writers, the most 



THE CLIMAX OF 1880.— POLITICAL PARTIES. 40o 

eloquent orators, the most ingenious statisticians, and the 
most graphic artists. In its service are all the brilhant and 
historic names and reputations. Military glory, statesman- 
ship, diplomacy, are alike appropriated to itself. Wealth, 
genius, love, and beauty, alike lay their treasures at its 
feet. 

A party as well as the nation has its laws. Its delegates 
and committeemen are as certain to be elected, and those 
elections are required to occur at times and places as defi- 
nitely settled by party rule as those for Congressmen or 
President. 

The thins: which we have been describino: did not beirin 
with the Republic. It is substantially a growth of the last 
fifty years. Its beginning was marked by the rise of the 
convention, its most public and prominent feature. Formerly, 
congressional and legislative caucuses nominated the candi- 
dates for ofiice. But about 1831 a change began to come 
about. "When the first severe cold of winter begins, every 
floating straw or particle of dust on the surface of a pond 
becomes the center of a crystallization around itself. The 
distances between the nearer and smaller, then the more iso- 
lated and larger, centers, are gradually bridged until the icy 
floor is built. So in the rise of party organism in the Re- 
public. The local organizations, the town clubs, the township 
conventions for the nomination of trustee and road master, 
became the initial centers of a process of crystallization which 
was to go on until the icy floor of party organization and 
platforms covered the thousand little waves and ripples of 
individual opinions from shore to shore. 

The delegate and the convention, the permanent committee 
and the caucus, became the methods by which the organiza- 
tion grew. Stronger and stronger have they grown, twining 
themselves like monster vines around the central trunk of the 
Republic. Every Presidential election has doubled the power, 
unity, centralization and resources of the monsters. The sur- 
plus genius and energy of the American people for organiz- 






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408 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

country, in the few days preceding the convention was wrought 
up to a pitch of feverish excitement. 

The three principal candidates for the Presidency, whose names 
were openly before the convention, were : Ulysses S. Grant, of 
Illinois; James G. Blaine, of Maine; and John Sherman, of Ohio. 

General Grant is the best known living American. His 
wonderful career is familiar throughout the civilized world. 
Rising from the trade of a tanner in an Illinois village, he 
became the commander of the armies of the Republic, the 
greatest soldier of the age. President of the United States for 
two terms, and the most distinguished citizen of tlie Union. 
The foundation of his fame is his military achievements. 
Taciturn, self-poised, alike unmoved by victory or defeat, 
grim, immovable, bent only on achieving the thing wliich lay 
before him, of deadly earnestness, equal to every emergency. 
Grant must be admitted to be a man of solitary and sublime 
genius. For practical resources, the age has not produced his 
equal. 

Grant's candidacy at Chicago, which seemed so singular to 
many, was really the result of underlying forces, greater than 
any of the men who were borne onward by the tide. First, 
was the fact of his personal candidacy. 

On one side was the Kepublican party closing its quarter of 
a century — a Long Parliament of counsels, deeds, and changes ; 
and, on the other, the tried Cromwell of the Commonwealth, 
backed by his victories, and asking the party to recognize him 
again. The party seemed almost destined to make the choice. 
In asking again for the Presidency, it was natural that he 
should look toward organization, discipline, and studied strat- 
egy as the instrumentalities of his canvass. His career as a 
soldier, his mental constitution, and his political training and 
experience during the arbitrary and tempestuous times of the 
civil war and the epoch of reconstruction, his military habit 
of relying on his subordinate generals, all were antecedents of 
the memorable struggle at Chicago, and helped to give it its 
character. 



THE CLIMAX OF 1S80.— THE POLITICAL MACHINE. 409 

But if Grant, in his personal canvass, naturally reached for 
the party organization to make up his lino of battle, the un- 
derlying tendency toward organization in politics, of which we 
have spoken heretofore, seeking for its strongest personal rep- 
resentative, inevitably selected Grant. Ou the' one side was 
his individual will turning toward the Machine. On the other 
was the far more powerful but impersonal force, in its strug- 
gle to grasp and subordinate' American politics, embodying 
itself in its chosen representative. It will be remembered that 
in popular opinion Grant became a candidate aa much at the 
request of his friends as from any personal wish. The distin- 
guished gentlemen who thus urged him were animated not 
merely by personal affection and preference, but by the invin- 
cible tendency toward organization, structure, and machinery 
in politics. In the organism the man found his support; in 
the man, the organic force found its strongest representative. 

But what of the opposite tendency, the counter-current, 
which set against organization, party discipline, unit rules, 
the tyranny of majorities, and toward the freedom of individ- 
ual action? Who was its representative? Was it ready to 
do battle with its gigantic foe? The Chicago Convention must 
be viewed not as a personal struggle between rival candidates, 
but as the meeting of two mighty waves in the ocean of 
American politics, the shock of whose collision was to be felt 
on the farthest shores. Amid the foam which rose along the 
line of breaking crests, mere men were for the moment almost 
lost from view. 

In the nature of the case the counter tendency could not 
embody itself beforehand in a representative. To be sure there 
was Blaine, the dashing parliamentary leader, the magnetic po- 
litician, the brilliant debater. Generous and brave of heart, su- 
perb in his attitude before the maligners of his spotless fame, 
personally beloved by his supporters beyond any man of Ina 
political generation, he was too independent to represent the 
organism, and too much of a candidate, and had too much 
machinery, too many of the politician's arts, to fully meet the 



410 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

requirements of the counter tendency in the great crisis. 
Although Blaine was beyond question running on his personal 
merits, yet the fact that he was a leading candidate, but with- 
out a majority, destined him to fall a prey to his competitors. 
In the great poUtical arena, when one gladiator is about to 
triumph over his divided rivals, the latter unite against him, 
that all may die together, and by giving to an unknown the 
palm of victory save themselves from the humiliation of a 
rival's triumph. 

John Sherman, the very opposite of Blaine, cold, cautious, solid, 
hostile to display, was also a candidate upon personal merits, and 
was also to fail from the same cause. 

It can not be said that there was any other candidate before 
the convention. WIndom, Edmunds, and Washburne, had each a 
small personal following, but neither sought the nomination, and 
all were only possible " dark horses." 

On the floor of the convention, Grant was to be represented by 
the triumvirate of United States Senators, Conkling, Cameron, and 
Logan. Of these, Cameron, though a superb manipulator, a 
splendid manager, and a man full of adroitness and resources, 
was a silent man. His voice was not lifted in debate. His work 
was in the secret room, planning, and not amid the clash of arms 
in the open field. Logan, tall and powerful, of coppery complex- 
ion, and long, straight, black hair, which told plainly of the In- 
dian blood, was a somewhat miscellaneous but rather powerful 
debater. His tremendous voice was well fitted for large audiences. 
That he was a man of great force is shown by his career. While 
his two colleagues were descended from high-born ancestry, — Cam- 
eron's father having been the son's predecessor in the United 
States Senate, — Logan sprang from below. 

The leader of the trio, and with one exception the most dis- 
tinguished person in the convention, was Koscoe Conkling. Tall, 
perfectly formed, graceful in every movement, with the figure of 
an athlete, and the head of a statesman, surmounted with a crown 
of snow-white hair, he was a conspicuous figure in the most brill- 
iant assemblage of the great which could convene on any conti- 



THE CLIMAX OF 1880.— A STRIKING CONTRAST. 411 

nent. In speaking, his flute-like tones, modulated by the highest 
elocutionary art, his intensely dramatic manner, his graceful but 
studied gesticulation, united to call attention to the sj^eaker as 
much as to the speech. He was dressed in faultless style, from 
the tightly-buttoned blue frock coat — the very neplv^ ultra of the 
tailor's art, — to the exquisite fancy necktie. If it were not for his 
intellect he would have been called a dandy. In his walk there 
was a perceptible strut. But the matter of Conkling's speeches is 
the best revelation of his character. Every sentence was barbed 
with irony; every expression touched with scorn. He was the 
very incarnation of pride. Haughty, reserved, imperious in man- 
ner, at every thrust he cut to the quick. His mastery of the sub- 
ject in hand was always apparently perfect, and not less perfectly 
apparent. He was called " Lord Eoscoe," " The Superb," " The 
Duke," and other names indicative of his aristocratic bearing. 
Never for a moment did he cease to carry himself as if he were on 
the stage. It is said that great actors become so identified with 
the characters they impersonate, that even in private life they re- 
tain the character which they have assumed on the stage. Thus 
Booth is said to order his fried eggs w^th the air of a Hamlet. So 
Conkling never for a moment laid aside the air of high tragedy. 

Nevertheless the commanding genius of the man was unques- 
tioned. He was the chief representative in the Chicago Conven- 
tion of the tendency to more organism, stronger party discipline, a 
more perfect machine. The problem to which he applied all his 
abilities, was to strengthen the party structure ; and to that end, 
practically place the power of both his party and his country in 
the hands of a few. A national party, with the consciences of its 
individual members in the hands of a few astute politicians, could 
control the Government forever. But the end is vicious, and the 
means an abomination to governments of the people, for the people, 

and by the people. 

The companion figure to that of Roscoe Conkling, of New York, 
was James A. Garfield, of Ohio. He was there as the chief sup- 
porter of John Sherman. The contrast between Conkling and 
Garfield was of the strongest possible kind. In person, Garfield 



412 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

was a taller man than Conkling, but his size and solidity of build 
made him look shorter. His figure, though less trim, had an air 
of comfortable friendliness and cheer about it. He, too, had a 
massive head, but it rested more easily above the broad shoulders. 
His face lacked the lines of scorn traced on the other, and made 
a true picture of a benevolent good nature, a generous, kindly 
heart, and a great and wise intellect. He wore a plain sack coat, 
and his attire generally though neat, was of an unstudied sort. 
He had a habit of sitting with his leg swinging over the arm of 
the chair, and his manners were those of a big, jolly, overgrown 
boy. In speaking he had a deep, rich voice, with a kindly accent, 
in marked contrast with the biting tones of the great New York 
Senator. He was never sarcastic, though often grave. His 
speeches were conservative but earnest. Socially, his manners 
were utterly devoid of restraint ; he was accessible to every body, 
and appeared to be on good terms with himself. The dramatic 
element was completely absent. He believed in Sherman heartily, 
though he was evidently a stranger to the mysterious arts of the 
wire-puller and politician. For himself, he was well satisfied look- 
ing forward to the seat in the United States Senate, which he was 
to enter the next December, with joy and gratification. 

These were the two chief figures of the Chicago Convention. 
Each was there as the chief supporter of another. The one was the 
conscious personification and representative of a tendency which, 
for fifty years, had been setting more and more strongly toward 
party organism and permanent structure, having for its aim a per- 
fect power-getting and power-keeping machine. The other was the 
unconscious personification and representative of the opposite ten- 
dency, the current which set toward a flexible rather than rigid 
party organization, toward new political ideas, and the independ- 
ence of individual thought. The one was a patrician, the other the 
child of the people. 

When the Chicago Convention met, it was the nature of the or- 
ganic tendency to have its candidate selected. On the other hand, 
it was equally the nature of the opposite tendency to have no can- 
didate. But each force was present in the convention working in 



THE CLIMAX OF 1880.— GATHERING OF THE CLANS. 413 

the hearts and minds of its members. Day after day, the angry white 
caps rose along the line where the two waves met. As the crisis 
approached the movement of resistance to the strengthening and 
increase of party organism, with that instinct which belongs to ever)'' 
subtle underlying tendency in human society, began to look and to 
feel its way toward a personal representative. Having found the 
man, the spirit would enter into him and possess him. 

Thus it was that when the supreme moment came, personal can- 
didates and preferences, pledges and plans, leaders and followers 
were suddenly lost from view. The force, which was greater than 
individuals, rose up, embodied itself in the person of a protesting 
and awe-stricken man within whose heart may have been some 
presentiment of the tragic future, and, subordinating all to itself, 
relentlessly demanding and receiving the sacrifice alike of candi- 
dates and of the supporter, defeating for the time being, not so much 
the silent soldier from Galena, as the political tendency which made 
him its representative. 

Notwithstanding the nomination of Garfield, as the remaining 
chapters of this story wall show, the spirit of party organism was not 
killed but stunned. Cast out from the most famous citizen of the 
Republic, it was to enter into a swine. History will say of Guiteau, 
that he embodied and represented a force stronger than himself. 

Let us turn now from the internal philosophy to the external 
facts of the Chicago Convention. 

Chicago is a roomy place and well-suited for the meeting of a 
large assembly, but its resources were taxed by the Convention 
of 1880. By Monday preceding the Convention, its hotels were 
crowded, and thousands upon thousands were pouring in every 
hour. It was a great gathering of rival clans, which did not wait 
the order of their generals to advance, but charged upon each 
other the moment they came upon the field. 

There were two battles in progress— the one of the masses, the 
other of the leaders. 

On Monday evening two public meetings of the "Grant" and 
" anti-Grant " elements, respectively, were held in Dearborn Park 
and in the Base Ball Park. 



414 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

The speakers announced for the Grant meeting were Senators 
Conldiug, liOgau, Carpenter, Stewart L. Woodford of New York, 
Leonard Swett, Emory Storrs, Robert T. Lincoln, and Stephen A. 
Douglas. But the advertised speakers did not all appear ; neither 
Conkling nor Carpenter spoke. They were too busy plotting else- 
where. In fact, this Grant meeting was, so far as any demonstra- 
tion in favor of the third term was concerned, an acknowledged 
failure. The speakers, however, managed to throw some spirit 
into the affair, and aroused some enthusiasm. 

But the anti-Grant meeting, as was quite evident, felt and fared 
better. Though it had been but meagerly advertised, and but few 
speakers of prominence had been announced, the grounds were 
densely crowded. At least ten thousand persons were in at- 
tendance. 

The tone of the meeting was unmistakable. The most radical 
utterances were the most loudly cheered. The people declared that 
"they would not submit to boss rule; that they would not have a 
third term ; that they would defeat the villainous attempt to de- 
prive them of their liberties." People came there determined to 
be pleased — with every thing or any thing but Grant. But they 
hissed the third term. They shouted themselves hoarse for Blaine, 
Washburne, and Edmunds. 

Speakers from New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and New 
Hampshire, declared that those States would be lost to the Repub- 
lican party by a third-term campaign. Meanwhile, notwithstand- 
ing the vast crowds attending the two meetings, the corridors of 
the hotels and streets were thronged. The utmost interest was 
manifested, and every report of the work of the managers of the 
candidates, whether reasonable or unreasonable, was seized and 
discussed in its bearing upon the candidates. The greatest inter- 
est centered about the Palmer House, where a secret meeting of 
the National Committee was being held. 

And what of this secret meeting? The National Committee 
contained a majority of anti-Grant men. At its very beginning, 
William E. Chandler, of New Hampshire, took the floor and offered 
the following resolutions : 



THE CLIMAX OF 1880.— A PRELIMINARY BATTLE. 415 

"Besolved, That the committee approves and ratifies the call for the approaching 
Republican National Convention, which was issued by its chairman and secretary, 
and which invites * two delegates from each Congressional district, four dclcgatea 
at large from each State, two from each Territory, and two from the District of 
Columbia,' to comiX)se the convention. 

"Resolved, That this committee recognizes the right of each delegate in a Repub- 
lican National Convention freely to cast and have counted his individual vote 
therein, according to liLs own sentiments, if he so decides, against any ' unit rule' 
or other instructions passed by a State convention, which right was conceded with- 
out dissent, and was exercised in the conventions of 1860 and 1868, and was, after 
a full debate, affirmed by the convention of 1876, and has thus become a part 
of the law of Republican conventions; and until reversed by a convention itself 
must remain a governing principle." 

The first of these passed unanimously. But not so tlie second. 
The "unit rule" was not to die without a struggle. Chairman 
Cameron promptly declared this resolution out of order. 

Then Mr. Chaifee, of Colorado, offered a resolution approving 
of the decision of the Cincinnati Convention, declaring that each 
delegate should be allowed to vote on all subjects before the 
convention. Mr. Gorham, of California, inquired of Mr. Cam- 
eron if he intended to entertain these resolutions. Mr. Cameron 
announced that he would not. This caused great excit^^meut, and 
Mr. Chaffee appealed from this decision. The next decision of 
Mr. Cameron caused still greater commotion, this being to the 
effect that there could be no appeal, as there was no question be- 
fore the committee. At this Mr. Chaffee renewed his appeal, say- 
ing that if the committee submitted to such tyranny it might as 
well have a king. This was roundly applauded. Mr. Cameron 
again repeated that there could be no appeal, and he would put 
none. 

Mr. Chandler thereupon, in a vigorous speech, demurred to 
such ruling, and wound up by also appealing from the decision of 
the chair. To further aggravate matters, Cameron again refused to 
entertain the appeal. This brought Frye, of Maine, to his feet, 
and in a caustic speech he told the chairman that the committee 
had rights which he (the chairman) was bound to respect. 

Mr. Chandler significantly remarked that if the chairman would 



416 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

not pay any respect to the committee, the same power that made 
him chairman would remove him. 

Mr. Forbes, of Massachusetts, tlien offered a resohition appoint- 
ing a committee of six to select and present to the committee a can- 
didate to preside at the temporary organization. This was adopted. 
A recess was then taken till half-past ten o'clock. 

It now became certain that the anti-Grant men were ready to 
depose Cameron at once if they could not control him in any 

other way. 

The committee to select the name of a temporary chairman re- 
turned after a recess of fifteen minutes, and reported in favor of 
Senator George F. Hoar, of Massachusetts. Senator Jones an- 
nounced that the minority reserved the right to name a candidate 
in the convention. After some minor matters, Mr. Frye offered 
one of the resolutions of the caucus, providing, in the case of the 
absence of the chairman of the committee from sickness or from 
any cause, that the chairman of the committee of six (Mr. Chand- 
ler) should be authorized to call the convention to order, and per- 
form all the duties pertaining to the temporary organization. 

Mr. McCormick followed with a second resolution of the caucus, 
directing that in all questions pertaining to the temporary organ- 
ization the chairman shall rule that every delegate was at liberty 
to vote as he chooses, regardless of instructions. Messrs. Gorham, 
Filley, and others, made great opposition, and Mr. Cameron ruled 
that this resolution would not be entertained, since it was not in the 
power of the committee to instruct the chairman as to his rulings. 

A warm debate followed as to the rights and powers of the com- 
mittee. Finally, the meeting attended to some routine business, 
and adjourned till next day noon. 

The battle now grew hotter every hour. Mr. Conkling's dele- 
gation broke in two, and issued the following protest : 

"Chicago, May 31, 1880. 

"The undersigned, delegates to the Republican National Convention, represent- 
ing our several Congressional districts in the State of New York, desiring above all 
the success of the Republican party at the approaching election, and realizing the 
hazard attending an injudicious nomination, dcckire our purpone to resist the nomvm- 



THE CLIMAX OF 1880.— A TRUCE. 417 

tion of General U. S. Grant bi/ all honorable means. "We arc sincere in tlie convic- 
tion that in New York, at least, his nomination would insure defeat. We have u 
great battle to fight, and victory is witiiin our rcacli, but we earnestly pr<»test 
against entering the contest wltli a nouiination which we regard as unwise and 
perilous. 

"William 11. Robertson, 12th Dist. ; William ?,. Woodin, 20th Dist. ; Xorman 
M. Allen and Loren B. Sessions, 33d Dist. ; Moses I). Stivers and Pdake G. AValcs, 
14lh Dist.; Webster Wagner and (reorge West, 20th Dist.; Albert Daggett, 3d Dist.; 
Simeon S. Hawkins and John P.irdsall, 1st Dist.; John P. Douglass and Sidney 
Sylvester, 22d Dist.; John B. Dutcher, 13lh Dist.; Henry R. James and Wells S. 
Dickinson, 19th Dist.; James W. Husted, 12th Dist. ; Ferris Jacobs, Jr., 21st Dist.; 
Oliver Abell, Jr., ISth Dist." 

A similar protest was puhlishod by twenty-two Pennsylvania 
delegates, lieaded by INIr. James McManes. 

At nine o'clock on the morning of June 1st, an anti-Grant caucii.s 
was held, which determined to defeat the " unit rule " at all 
hazards, even if Mr. Cameron must first be deposed from the chair- 
man. ship. 

The news of the firm attitude of the caucus had reached Cam- 
eron, Gorham, Filley, Arthur, and their associates, and before any 
movement could be made, the Grant men announced that they had 
a proposition to make, looking to harmonizing all differences. A 
rece.ss M'as taken to allow a committee on the part of Cameron, 
Conkling, Arthur^.and Logan, to state the agreement which they 
were willing, to make. It proved to be as follows: 

"Tliat Senator Hoar should be accepted as temporary chairman of the 
convention, and that no attempt ,'^hould be niiide to enfbrec the unit rule, 
or have a test vote in the convention, until the committee on credentiald 
had reported, when the unit-rule question should be decided by the con- 
vention in its own way." 

This proposition was finally, in the interest of harmony, agreed 
to by all parties. 

On Wednesday, June 2d, after days and nights of caucusing, 
vserenading, speech-making, and cheering by every body, and lor 
nearlv cvcrv lx)dv. the ii-reat convention held its first session. As 
a clever correspondent wrote at the tinjc: 
27 



418 



LIFE OF JA^rES A. GARFIELD. 



"A more beautiful daj' in June probably never rose upon a Presiden- 
tial Convention. The s^un, the shade, the trees, the lake, the higlufayados 
of business buildings and palace hotels; the air cool, yet temperate; the 
well- dressed, energetic people, and the signs of prosperous business, 
uninfluenced even by sucli a convention, sent a hopeful, cheery feeling 
to the heart. The ragcful features of the past day or two went into 
their tents at such sunshine and calm godliness of sky." 

The place of meeting was in the Exposition Buililing, in the 
p.outh half of which vast structure tlicrc is a hall 400 feet lor.<i bv 




THE EXPOSITION BUILDING, WIIEKE GARFIKIJ) WAS NOMINATED. 

150 feet wide, with galleries all round, and so arranged that room 
for about ten thousand people could be jirovided. 

At eleven o'clock the band stationed ^)n the north gallery began 
])!ayiug national airs, but nearly an hour passed before the dele- 
srates took their seats. The Chairman called on tlie Sccretarv to 
read 1^3 call, and Secretary Kcogh proceeded, in a clear voice, to 
.read the document. 



THE CLI^IAX OF 1880.— THE OOXVENTION MEETS. 419 

jNIr. Cameron then arose, and, in a short address, nominated, as 
temporary chairman, the Hon, George F. Hoar, of Massachusetts, 
v.lio was ek'ctcd by a unanimous vote, !Mr Hoar was then con- 
iluetcd. to the chair; and the preliminary organization Mas thus 
peacefully resigned by the disappointed Grant faction, wliich had 
expected, to control all. 

On motiou of Eugene Hale, of Main-s, the roll of States and 
Territories was Ciillcd, and the committees made up. There were 
four: (1) Permanent Organization; (2) Rules; (3) Cre<leutials; and 
(4) Resolutions. 

After a slight stir over Utah, and a sharp encounter between 
Conlding nud Fryc, the opening business was completed, and the 
convention adjourned for that day, 

A newsj^Kiper dispatch sent out of the room during this session 
said : 

"There is a good deal of talk about Garfield. Some significance is 
attached to the foct that when the name was mentioned in the conven- 
tion to-day as a member <jf the Committee on Rules it was loudly ap- 
plauded," 

And another added: 

"A prolonged contest is now certain on the fif)or of the convention to- 
day over the reports from the committees on Credentials, Rules, and 
Resolutions. Senator Conkling is recognized as the leader of debate on 
tiic. Grant side. Yrye and Hale will be the principal speakers, with 
Garfield and Conger on the part of the majority. Tlie debates im-ccc.1- 
ing the balloting promise to be the most heated and the ablest ever 
iieard in a Republican Convention." 

That night the popular battle in the streets and lobbies con- 
tinued, attended with ever-growing excitement. Grant nun and 
Blaine men loudly proclaimed their confidence in a victory for 
their respective favorites, on the first or second ballot. Each of 
these two leaders claimed about three hundred reliable votes; l)ut, 
in fact, thoy had not six hundred between them. 

Sherman, Edmmids, Washburne, and AVindom men felt sure that 
neither Blaine nor Grant could be nominated on aecuimt ol the 



420 ^ LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD, 

violent opposition of tbeir factions. This gave hope to each of 
these smaller sections^ and made " dark-horse " talk plausible. 

At eleven o'clock of June 3d, the second day's fight of the 
convention began. As the delegations took their places^ the great 
crowd of spectators occupied themselves in getting acquainted 
with the men ^yho were to give and receive the hard blows to be 
dealt by both sides when the contest opened. All these men — 
Conkling, Garfield, Frye, Hale, and Logan — were cordially re- 
ceived^ though there Vv-ere degrees in the favor. 

The most spontaneous of the greetings given any one of the lead- 
ers was to Garfield. One of the ovations to him gave rise to a 
ludicrous affair for Conkling. The latter had made his usual late 
and pompous entrance, had been received with much noise, and 
walked slowly up to his seat near the front. Ju.st as he rose to 
show himself further and address the chair, General Garfield came 
in at the rear. A tremendous and rapidly spreading cheer broke 
out, which the Kew York " Duke" mistook for his own property. 

The second day was now passing, and the preliminaries were 
not yet complete. It was the policy of the Grant men to make de- 
lay, and wear out the strength of all opponents. They had come^ 
as Cameron said, " to stick until we win." Tlie Blaine leaders, on 
the other hand, had no such reliable, lasting force. They must 
dash in boldly and carry off their prize at once, or be forever 
defeated. 

To-day the Blaine men came in jubilant, for they had beaten 
the Grant faction in the committees. Conkling opened the pro- 
ceedings from the floor at the earliest moment. He moved to 
adjourn until evening to avrait the report of the Committee on 
Credentials. Hale opposed this. Conkling, in his haste, forget- 
ting his parliamentary knowledge, claimed that his motion to take 
a recess was not debatable. The Chairman overruled this, much 
to th3 annoyance of Conkling. He soon poured out a little vial 
of wrath on Hale, and sneered at him as his " amiable friend." 
To this Hale retorted that he had not spent his time in cultivating 
sarcastic and sneering methods in argument; and if the Senator 
from New York was less amiable than others this morning the 



THE CLIMAX OF ISSO.— A SECOND ADJOURNMENT. 421 

convention umlorstood the reason well. At this reference to the 
general defeat of the Grant forces in the committees during the last 
evening the pe<;)plc laughed loudly at Coukliug, and that angu.-st 
gentleman himself deigned to smile. 

Soon the Committoc on Permanent Organization reported, the 
temporary chairman and other ofScers were continued, and INIr. 
Hoar took permanent possession of his Chairmanship- Thereuiwn 
]Mr. Frye moved that the Committee on llules and Order of busi- 
ness report at once. Mr. Sharpe, of New York, now arose and said 
that he had been instructed by the delegates of nine States to pre- 
pare a minority report of the Committee on Rules; that he had 
aot had time to do so, and this ought not to be taken advantage 
of, because, by agreement in the committee, he should have had a 
longer time to prepare. 

]\Ir. Frve thou said that if the chairman of that committee — 
iMr. Garfield — was present, he would request tliat gentleman to 
state what agreement had been made. 

As General Garfield arose in his seat he was greeted with loud 
and prolonged cheers and applause, and cries of " Platform," "Step 
up on the seat" He said: \ 

" ]\Ir. President, the Committee on Rules finished its business at about 
eleven o'clock hy adopting a body of ruk^s and an order of business. A 
resolution was then offered by one member of the committee that it was 
the judgment of tlie committee that the report ouglit to lie made after 
the report of the Conmiittec on Credentials, and that uas adopted, 
whether unauimously or not I am unabk to eay, for the committee was 
about breaking up. General Sharpe ro£[uestcd that a minority of that 
committee might have leave to offer their views a6 a minority, and no 
objection \ras made. No vote was taken on that latter topic. I (hd 
not, therefore, and shall not tender a report of the Committee on Kules. 
I am, however, like every other delegate, subject to the orders of tliis 
convention, and whon they desire the report and order it, I sui)poso the 
committee are ready to make it, l)ut good faith requires tliis ccrtaiidy^ 
that if the minority is not reivdy with its report it ought to have the time." 

Mr. Frye then withdrew his motion, and the convention ad- 
journed until evening- 



fJZ 

^ 422 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIEDD. 

At half-past five they had reassembled and the battle proceeded 
at the point where it had been dropped l^efore adjournment. 

The Committee on Credentials were nat i-eadv to report, and it 
was so announced. The Blaine men forced the fighting, entering 
a motion bv Mr. Henderson, of Iowa, that the convention i>ro€ecd 
to consider the report of the Committee on Rules and Organization. 
This the Grant men rcsisted, and for this reason : The rules which 
had been agreed to bj the committee only allowed five minutes de- 
bate on the matter of each individual contested seat. The Grant 
men did not Avant the rejwrt adopted l>efo.i*o the Committee on Cre- 
dentials rejTorted, because they wanted to ascertain just what the 
latter report would be. Logan led the fight for Grant, sui>porte(l 
by Boutwell and others. Henderson held liis own very well. Fi- 
nally, after an hour of this running fire of del^ate, Mr, Sharpe 
moved to amend the pendhig motion by substituting an order tiiat 
the Committee on Credentials report at once. 

On this amendment a vote was soon reached which proved to be 
the most significant event of the day; for it was the first vote taken 
by States; it was a test vote between the Gi-ant m(tvi. on the one 
side and the allied anti-Grant factions on the other, and it settled 
the fate of the " unit rule." 

Upon Alabama being called, the Chairman of the delcgatioD;, 
^Ir. Dunn, announced 20 ayes. 

Mr. Alien Alexander, of Alabama, a colored delegate — I desire 
to vote " No.'' 

The Chairman — Does the gentleman from Alabama desire thai 
his vote should be received in the negative? 

Mr. Alexander — Yes, sir. 

The Chairman — It will be so reoorded. 

Several other States offered divided votes» 

The result was against Sharpens substitute^, by a vote of 318 to 
40G. About forty delegates were absent or did not vote. There 
was great rejoicing among the anti-Grant factions when it became 
certain that Hoar w^ould allow iio "uait Fule" until forced to do 
so by an order of the convention. 

On m.otion of Mr. BuaudageC;^ of ConncctLcutj, Henderson's mo- 



THE CLIMAX OF 1830.— A GLOOMY FIllDAY. 423 

tion was laid on the table, and adjournment till tlie next day fol- 
lowed immediately. 

Friday of convention week dawned less delij;htfiilly tlian di<l 
the fir^st two days. There was a cloudy .sky, an east wind, a rheu- 
matic, chilly atmosphere penetrating every nook and corner (^f the 
great Convention Hall, and a crowd of shivering; mortals pushed and 
elbowed each other u]) and down the })assages, delegates looking 
angular, stiff, and cold- and angry, — every body denouncing the 
weather- The dull light made the pictures on the walls look sour 
and stern and cross. The frown on the wretched oil-painted face 
of old Ben Wade was deepened ; Zaeh ('handler's hard mouth a})- 
])eared more firmly set, and Sumner's jav,' was more rigid and u!i- 
com])romising than ever in life. The flags drooped under the de- 
pressing atmospheric influences, blue turned black, the red was dull, 
and the white looked dirty, and the stars were dim. The opening 
.*^ccnes of each day had now assumed a stereotyped form. Conk- 
linjr made his arrival in state as usual, and the usual cheer wont u[>. 
General Phil Sheridan M-as greeted with hearty applause, and Gar- 
field's entmnce was the signal for a great ovation. 

Ilardlv had the opening prayer of the good un\\\ of God come 
to its amen wheu Mr, Conkling offeral the following: 

ReKoliYd, As the sense of this Convention, that every memlwr of it U hound in 
!ion<>i- to biii>portits nominee, whoever tliat nominee luaj be; iind that no man 
sliould hold a seat liet-e who is not ready to su ngree. 

Mr. Ilale said he thought that a Republican Convention di<l not 
need to be instructed, that its fa-st and underlying duty, after nonn- 
iiating its candidate, was to elect him over the Democratic candidate. 

A call of the States being requested, the convention voted 
unanimously in favor of Mr. Conkling's res(vlution, with the ex- 
ception of three hostile votes from West Virginia. 

Mr. Conkling then oftercd the follov^-ing: 

^'Re.'^olml, Tliat the delegates who have vo(e<J thr.t thev will not ahid-- the -.v- 
tion of the eonvention do Hot deserve and liave furfeiUxl their vol*; iu thiscuii- 
Pention." 

m. Campbell, of West Virginia-" Mr. Chuirmui: There are tliroo 



700 

/42-1 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

gentlemen from West Virginia, good and true Republicans, who have, 
voted in the negative in the last vote. Gentlemen, as a delegate in 
a Republican Convention, I am -willing to withdraw. If it has come 
to this that in tlie city of Chicago, where I came as a young man 
from the State of Virginia, after liaving submitted twenty years to 
contumely and to violence in the State of Virginia ibr my Republican 
[)rinci})les — if it has come to this, that in the city of Chicago a dele- 
gate i'rom that State can not have a free expression of opinion, I for 
one am willing to withdraw from this convention. Mr. Chairman, I 
have been a Republican in the State of Virginia from my youth. 
. For twenty-five years I have published a Republican newsjyapt^r in 
that State. I have supported every Republican Presidential nojuhiee 
in that time. 1 exjxsct to support the nominee of this convention. 
But, sir, I shall do so as a Re])ublican, having ind)il>ed my principles 
from the great statesman from New York, William H. Seward, \\ith 
•Nvhom I had an early acquaintance by virtue of my having gone to 
school with him nine years from the city of "Ctica, from which the 
Senator from New York now hails. I was a Republican then, and 
I made the accjuaintance of that distinguished gentleman. I came 
home, and in my youth I became a newspaper editor. From that 
day to this — from the John Brown raid on Harper's Ferry all through 
the troubles of the last twenty-five years— I have consistently and 
always supported our State and National Republican nominee. Bnt, 
Mr. Chairman, I fetd as a Republi«in that there is a princii)le in this 
question, and I will never go into any convention and agree beforehand 
that whatever may be done by that convention shall have my indorse- 
ment. Sir, as a free man, whom God made free, I always intend to 
carry my sovereignty under my own hat. I never intend that any Ixxly 
of men shall take it from me. I do not, 5Ir. Chairman, niake my 
living by politics; I make it by my labor as a newspaper editor; and 
I am not afraid to go home and say that I stood up here in this con- 
vention, as I was not afraid to stand up in the State of West Virginia, 
when but 2,900 men were found to vote for Abraham Lincoln, and 
where that party has risen to-day to 45,000 votes under the training 
that Ave received from our early inspiration of principle. I am not 
ai'raid to go home and face these men as I have faced theni always." 

The two other dissenters also stated tlieir position as dort- 
tmtly if not as ably. After some further deUate, Mr. Garfic-Id 



THE CLIMAX OF ISSO.— KULE VIII. 425 

spoke, taking gToiind against Conkling's pending rcsokition. 
AVkilc speaking to this, he said: 

"There never can be a convention, of which I am one delegate, equal 
in rights to every other delegate, that ^^liall bind niy vote against niv 
v.ill on any question whatever on which my vote is to be given. 

" I regret tlait these gentlemen thought it best to break the harmony 
of this convention by their dissent; but, when they tell the convention 
that their di^^sent was not, and did not n:ean, that they av<.u1(1 -not 
vote fen- the nominee of this convention, but only that they did not 
think the resolution at this time wise, they acted in their right, and 
not l<y my vote. I do not know" the gentlemen, nor their affiliations, 
nor their relations to candidates, except one of them. One of them I 
knew iu the dark days of slavery, and for twenty long years, in tlie 
midst of slave-pens and slave-drivers, has stood up for liberty with a 
clear-sighted courage and a brave heart equal to the best Republicans 
that live on this globe. And if this convention expel him, llien we 
must purge ourselves at the end of eveiy vote by requiring that so many 
as shall vote against us shall go out." 

A few minutes later Mr. Conkling withdrew the obnoxious 
rcsokttion. 

Tlie fii-st important business of the day was now transacted. 
Mr. Garfield, as Chairman of the Committee on Rules and 
Order of Business, read tke report of that committee. Its 
most important provision was: 

"Eule Vni. In the record of the votes by States, tlio vote of each Slate, 
Territory, and the District of Columbia, shall be annoitncid by the cbnirnian; 
and in case the votes of any State, Territory, or tlie District of Colimd)ia shall 
be divided, tlie chairman shall announce the number of votes cast for any can- 
didate or for or against any proposition; but, if exception is taken by any del- 
egate to the correctness of "such announcement by tlie chairman of his delega- 
tion, the president of the convention shall direct the roll of niend)ers of such 
delegation to be called and the result recorded in accordance with the votes in- 
dividually given." 

From this rcsokition a niincu-ity of tke committoo dissented, 
and, througk General Skarpe, presented, as iiulc A ill, the 
following: 

"In the record of the votes by States, the vote of each State, Territory, and 



426 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

the District of Columbia shall be announced by the chairman; and in case the 
votes of any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia shall be divided, the 
chairman shall announce the number of votes cast for any candidate or for or 
against any proposition." 

When the final action was taken, the majority report pre- 
vailed. 

At last there came the long-delayed report of the Commit- 
tee on Credentials, the one great matter preliminary to the real 
work of this great gathering of the people's representatives. 
This committee's principal duty was to decide upon the conflict- 
ing claims of "regular" and "bolting" delegations from several 

States. 

The reading of this report was painfully tedious, taking 
over three hours; and the debates which followed as the sep- 
arate State contests were being settled, kept any other busi- 
ness from being done that day. 

From the State of Louisiana, the committee recommended 
the admission of the delegation with their alternates headed 
by Henry C. Warmouth, and the exclusion of the delegation 
with their alternates headed by Taylor Beattio. This contest 
arose out of two rival conventions. 

The committee recommended James T. Eapier for admission 
as a delegate from the Fourth Congressional District of Ala- 
bama. Tlie facts found were that Rapier had been requested 
to pledge support for Grant, and upon his refusal to do so the 
president of the convention had been requested to withhold 
the credentials unless he would, within twenty-four hours, give 
such pledge. This, Rapier had refused to do. 

The committee recommended that William II. Smith and 
Willett Warner be admitted in the place of Arthur Bingham 
and R. A. Mosely from the Seventh Congressional District of 
Alabama. The facts in the case of Messrs. Smith and Warner 
were substantially the same as those in the case of James T. 
Rapier. 

^ The committee recommended the admission of eight del- 
egations from the State of Illinois, in the place of sitting 



THE CLIMAX OF ISSO.— AN EXTRAORDINARY SESSION. 427 

members. The Committee found that a State Conventiou had 
been lield at Springfiekl, on tlie I'Jth day of Ma}', to elect 
deloiratcs to the National Convention. Durins^ the conven- 
turn, tfee delegates from eight Congressional Districts had as- 
sembled and organized District Conventions, each of which 
had elected two delegates and two alternates to the Chicago 
Convention by clear majorities of all the delegates elected to 
the State Convention in each of said districts, as was shown 
by tlie credentials accompanying the report. The State Con- 
vention, by means of a committee of one from each Congres- 
sional District, selected, and afterward assumed to elect, two 
deleo-ates to the National Convention, including the sitting 
members from the foregoing districts, the delegates from each 
of which filed in the State Convention protests against said 
election by the State Convention. The committee reported 
against the validity of the contests in the Second District of 
lUinois of the scats of sitting members, A. M. AV right and 
E. S. Tuthill. 

Contests were also settled by this report in cases coming 
from several other States. 

In each case of favorable consideration, the committee 
ascertained that those delegates Avho were recommended 
were actually chosen by a proper convention, represent- 
ing the Congressional District from which they were accred- 
ited. 

The committee then proceeded to the justice and (>qnity of 
recognizing, securing, and protecting Congressional District 
representation, as is also demonstrated by the actual prece- 
dents of the Dtcpublican party since its organization. 

Witli the exception of a couple of hours for supper, this 
extraordinary session kept to the subjects of this ri'i-ort 
steadily from one o'clock in the afternoon till after two in 
the morning. This chapter can not find room for these de- 
bates, though surpassing in interest, as they do, many ii 
volume of the Co-nrjresslonal llceord. The Illinois questions 
caused the most intense feeling of all. At ten oV-loek they 



i 428 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

were taken up ; after a sliort time, on motion, tlie farther de- 
bate was limited to one liour on each side. 

The whole subject of this report was not fully disposed of 
until early in the Saturday session. The result was that the 
majority report was adopted, and the "machine" thus received 
another solid shot, which penetrated its iron sides below water- 
line ; but the leaders fired no guns to signal their distress. 

Saturday, June 5th, was, like Friday, dark and gloomy. 
The vast crowd, after the preceding night of excitement, was, 
of course, dnll and sleepy. It was noted, however, that when 
Garfield came into the hall the audience waked up and gave a 
hearty cheer. 

The roll was called at about twelve o'clock. After finishing 
the matters connected with the credentials, the Convention, on 
motion of General Garfield, adopted the report of the Commit- 
tee on Eules. The Committee on Resolutions next reported, 
and the Platform was adopted; after which the Convention 
adjourned till evening. 

Skirmishing ended, now would come serious work. The 
triumvirate and its legions had exhausted every parliamentary 
resource for delay, and at last had to face "the inevitable hour" 
which must lead, for them, to glory, or the common grave of 
all their plans. 

It was a magnificent audience which poured into the great 
hall that evening to witness the beginning of the end of this 
tremendous political conflict. 

After some preliminaries, Mr. Hale, of Maine, moved that the 
roll of States be called alphabetically and that nominations for 
candidates for President be made. 

General Logan inquired whether the rules permitted the sec- 
onding of nominations for candidates for President. The Chair- 
man said no, that the rules did not provide for it. Garfield thought 
there would be no objection to the seconding of nominations. 
Unanimous consent was accorded for five-minute speeches in 
seconding nominations. Hale's motion was then adopted with- 
out opposition. 



THE CLIMAX OF ISSO.-NOMINATION OF BLAINE. 429 

The roll was then called down to ]Miclngan, with no re- 
sponses. When that State was named, James F. Joy arose 
and nominated, for President of the United States, James G. 
Elaine. Mr. Joy was not the kind of a man to aronse the entlm- 
siasm of an audience, and when he had closed, Mr. Pixley, of 
California, seconded the nomination. These speeches were a 
great disappointment to the Blaine men. They still remem- 
hered IngcrsolTs famons "plumed knight" speech for Blaine at 
Cincinnati, in 1876. To remedy matters, Mr. William P. Frye, 
of Maine, obtained the floor by consent, and delivered the fol- 
lowing brief, Imt brilliant little speech, whicli, in a measure, 
retrieved the mistake already made. He said : 

"I saw once a storm at sea in the night-time, and our staunch old ship 
battling for its life with the fury of the tempest; darkness every-where; 
the wind shrieking and howling through the rigging ; the huge waves 
beating upon tlie sides of that ship and making her shiver from stem to 
stern. Tlie lightnings were flashing, the thunders were rolling. There was 
danger every-where. I saw at the helm a calm, bold, courageous, im- 
movable, commanding man. In the tempest, calm ; in the commotion, 
quiet ; in the dismay, hopefid. I saw him take that old shi]) and hring 
lier into the harbor, into still waters, into safety. That man was a hero. 
I saw the good old ship, the State of Maine, within the last year, fight- 
ing her way tlu'ough the same darkness, through the same perils, again?t 
the same waves, against the same dangers. She was freighted with all 
that is precious in tlie principles of our RepuMic — with the rights of 
American citizenship, with all that is guaranteed to the American citizen 
by our C(mstitution. The eyes of the whole Nation were upon her; :in 
intense anxiety filled every American heart, lest the grand old shij), ihe 
State of ]\Liine, might go down beneath the waves forever, carrying her 
precious freight with her. But, sir, there was a man at the helm. C;dm, 
deliberate, commanding, sagacious, he made even the f )olish men \vi.<e. 
Courageous, he insinred the timid with courage; hopeful, he gave heart to 
the dismayed, and he brought that good old ship ])roudly into the harbor, 
into safety, and there she floats today, brigliter, purer, !<tronger from Iht 
baptism of danger. That man, too, v/as a hero, nw\ his name Avas James 
G. Blaine. Maine sends greetings to this magnificent Convention. 
With the memory of her own salvation from impending peril fresh iijx)n 



430 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

hei*, she says to you, representatives of 50,000,000 of American people, 
who have met Ikm-c to counsel how the Republic shall be saved, she says 
to you, representatives of the people, take a man, a true man, a staunch 
man for your leader, who has just saved her, and who will bear you to 
safety and certain victory." 

Minnesota v;as next called ; wherenpon E. F. Drake placed 
in nomination William Arindom, of Winona, a very able and 
distinguished Senator from that State. 

'How was heard the call for Xew York ; a call which meant 
Roscoe Conkling and the nomination of the great General and 
ox-President, Ulysses S. Grant. 

As Mr. Conkling advanced to the front, he was greeted with 
tremendous cheers. Taking a commanding position on one of 
the reporter's tables, he stood a few moments and regarded the 
audience while they grew silent at an imperious Avave of his 
hand. Then he said : 

"When asked whence comes our candidate, onr sole reply shall be, 
he hails from Appomattox with its famous apple-tree. In obedience to 
instructions I should never dare to disregard, expressing also my own 
firm conviction, I rise to propose a nomination with which the country 
and the Republican party can grandly win. The election before lis is to 
be the Austerlitz of American politics. It will decide for many years 
whether the country shall be Republican or Cossack. The supreme need 
of the hour is not a candidate who can carry Michigan. All Republican 
candidates can do that. The need is not of a candidate popular in the 
territories, becau-e they have no vote. The need is of a candidate Avho 
can carry doubtful States. Not the doubtful States of the North, but 
doubtful States of the South, which we have heard, if I understand it 
aright, ought to take little or no part here, because the South has noth- 
ing to give, but every thing to receive. No, gentlemen, the need that 
presses upon the conscience of this convention is of a candidate who can 
carry doubtful States both North and South. And believing that lie, 
more surely than any other mrui, can carry New York against any op- 
ponent, and can carry not only the North but sevenil States of the South, 
New York is for Ulysses S. Grant. Never defeated in peace or in war, 
his name is the most illustrious borne by living man. 



THE CLIMAX OF 1S80.— NOMINATION OF GRANT. 431 

" His services attest his greatness, and tlio country— nav, the world — 
knows them by heart. His fame was earned not alone in things written 
and said, but by the arduous greatness of things done. And perils and 
emergencies will search in vain in the future, as they have searched in 
vain in the past, for any other on whom the nation leans with such con- 
fidence and trust. Never having had a policy to enforce against the will 
o:"the people, he never betrayed a cause or a friend, and the people will 
ncvei- desert nor betray him. Standing on the highest eminence of hunian 
distinction, modest, firm, simple, and self-poised, having filled all lands 
with his renown, he has seen not only the high-born and the titled, 
but tlie poor and the lowly in the uttermost ends of the earth, rise and 
uncover before him. He has studied the needs and the defects 
of many systems of government; and he has returned a better American 
than ever, with a wealth of knowledge and experience added to the hard 
common sense which shone so conspicuously in all the fierce light that 
bent upon him during sixteen years, the most trying, the most jiorten- 
tous, the most perilous. 

"Vilified and reviled, truthlcssly -aspersed by unnund)ered presses, not 
in other lands, but in his own, assaults ui)on him have seasoned and 
strengthened his hold on the pul)lic heart. Calumny's ammunition has 
all been exploded; the powder has all been burned once; its force is 
spent: and the name of Grant will glitter a bright and imperishable 
star in the diadem of the Republic when those who have tried to tarnish 
that name have moidered in forgotten graves, and when their memories 
and their epitaphs have vanished utterly. 

"Never elated by success, never depressed by adversity, he has ever, 
in pence as in war, shown the very genius of common sense. The terms 
he prescribed for Lee's surrender foreshadowed the wisest prophecies and 
priiiciples of true reconstruotion. Victor in the greatest war of modem 
times, he quickly signalized his aversion to war, and his love of peace by 
an arbitration of international disputes, which stands the wisest, the 
niitst mnj "Stic example of its kind in the world's diplomacy. When in- 
flation, at the height of its ])opularity and frenzy, had swept both Hou.'^cs 
of Congress, it was the veto of Giant which, single and alone, overthrew 
exi)ansion, and cleared the way fi)r specie I'osumption. To him, to Imn 
immeasurably more' than to any other man, is due the fact that every 
paper dollar is as good as gold. 

" With him as our leader we shall have no defensive campaign. No I 



^ 432 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

AVe sliall have nothing to explain away. ^Ve shall have no apologies to 
nuike. The shafts and the arrows have all been aimed at him, and they 
lie broken and harmless at his feet. 

"Life, liberty, and property will find a safeguard in him. Whou he 
said of the colored men in Florida, 'Wherever I am they may come 
also ; ' Avhcn he so said, he meant that had he the power, the poor dwell- 
ers in the cabins of the South should no longer be driven in terror from 
the homes of their childhood and the graves of their murdered dead. 
When he refused to receive Denis Kearney in California, he meant that 
Communism, laAvlessness, and disorder, although it might stalk high- 
headed and dictate law to a whole city, would find a foe in him. He 
meant that popular or unpopular, he would hew to the line of right, let 
the chips fly where they may. 

"His integrity, his common sense, his courage, his unequalcd experience, 
are the qualities offered to his country. The only argument, the only one 
that the wit of man or the stress of politics has devised is one w^hich would 
dumbfounder Solomon, because he thought there was nothing new under 
the sun. Having tried Grant twice and found him faithful, we are told 
that we must not, even after an interval of years, trust him again. I\Iy 
countrymen! my countrymen what stultification does not such a fal- 
lacy involve. The American people exclude Jefferson Davis from ])ul> 
lic trust. Why? Why? Because he was the arch-traitor and would-be 
destroyer; and now the same people is asked to ostracise Grant, and not 
to trust him. AVhy ? ^Yliy, I repeat ? Because he was the arch-pre- 
server of his country, and because not only in war, but twice as Civil 
Magistrate, he gave his highest, noblest efforts to the Eepublic. Is this 
an electioneering juggle, or is it hypocrisy's masquerade? There is no 
field of human activity, responsibility, or reason, in which rational beings 
object to an agent because he has been weighed in the balance and not 
found wanting; no department of human reason in which sane men re- 
ject an agent because he has had experience, making him exceptionally 
competent and fit. From the man who shoes your horse to the lawyer 
who tries your cause, the officer who manages your railway or your mill, 
the doctor into Avhosc hands you give your life, or the minister who seeks 
to s;vve your soul, what man do you reject because, by his works, y<)U 
liave known him, and found him faithful and fit? What makes the 
Presidential office an exception to all things else in the common sense 
to be applied to selecting its incumbent? Who dares — who dares to put 



THE CLIMAX OF 1880.— NOMINATION OF GRANT. 433 

fetters on that free choice and judgment which is the birthright of the 
American people? Can it be said tliat Grant has used official power 
and place to perpetuate liis term? He has no place, and official power 
has not been used for liim. Without patronage and without emis.-aries, 
without committees, without bureaus, without telegraph wires running 
from his house to this Convention, or running from his house anywliere 
else, this man is the candidate? whose friends liave never thi'eatened to 
bolt unless this Convention did as they said. He is a Ecpuljlican who 
never weavers. He and his friends stand by the creed and the candi- 
dates of the Republican party. They hold the rightful rule of the ma- 
joiity as the very essence of their faith, and they mean to uphold that 
faith against not only the common enemy, but against the charlatans, 
jayhawkers, tramps, and guerrillas — the men who deploy between the 
lines, and forage now on one side and then on the other. This Conven- 
tion is master of a supreme opportunity. It can name the next Presi- 
dent. It can make sure of his election. It can make sure not oidy of 
his election, but of his certain and peaceful inauguration. It can break 
that power which dominates and mildews the South. It can overthrow 
an organization whose very existence is a standing protest against prog- 
ress. 

"The purpose of the Democratic party is spoils. Its very hope of ex- 
istence is a solid South. Its success is a menace to order and progress. 
I say this Convention can overthrow that power. It can dissolve and 
emancipate a solid South. It can speed the Nation in a career of 
grandeur eclipsing all past achievements. Gentlemen, we have only to 
listen above the din and look beyond the dust of an hour to behold the 
Republican party advancing with its ensigns resplendent with illustrious 
achievements, marching to certain victory with its greatest JNIarshal at 
its head." 

After Mr. Bradley, of Kentucky, Lad seconded Grant's nom- 
ination, the call proceeded, and Ohio being reached. General 
Garfield arose. Amid great applause he advanced to Mr. 
Conklina-'s late higli station on a table, and, as soou as order 
was restored, said.: 

""Sh: President: I have witnessed the extraordinary scenes of tins 
Convention with deep solicitude. No emotion touches my heart more 
quickly than a sentiment in honor of a great and noble character. But 

2« 



434 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

as I sat on these seats and witnessed these demonstrations, it seemed to 
me you were a human ocean in a tempest. I have seen the sea lashed 
into fury and tossed into spray, and its grandeur moves the soul of the 
dullest man. But I remember that it is not the billows, but the calm 
level of the sea from which all heights and depths are measured. When 
the storm has passed and the hour of calm settles on the ocean, when 
sunshine bathes its smooth surface, then the astronomer and surveyor 
takes the level from which he measures all terrestrial heights and depths. 
Gentlemen of the convention, your present temper may not mark the 
healthful pulse of the people. 

" When our enthusiasm has passed, when the emotions of this hour 
have subsided, we shall find the calm level of public opinion, below the 
storm, from which the thoughts of a mighty people are to be measured, 
and by which their final action will he determined. Not here, in this 
brilliant circle, where 15,000 men and women are assembled, is the des- 
tiny of the Republic to be decreed; not here, where I see the enthusias- 
tic faces of 756 delegates waiting to cast their votes into the urn and 
determine the choice of their party; but by 5,000,000 Republican fire- 
sides, Avhere the thoughtful fathers, with wives and cliildren about them, 
with calm thoughts inspired by love of home and love of country, with 
the history of the past, the hopes of the future, and the knowledge of 
the great men who have adorned and blessed our nation in days gone 
by, — there God prepares the verdict that shall determitie the wisdom 
of our work to-night. Not in Chicr.go, in the heat of June, but in the 
sober quiet that comes betv/een now and Noveml)er, in the silence of de- 
liberate judgment, will this great question be settled. Let us aid them 
to-night. 

"But now, gentlemen of the Convention, what do we want? Bear 
with me a moment. Hear me for this cause, and for a moment, be silent 
that you may hear. Twenty-five years ago this Republic was wearing a 
triple chain of bondage. Long familiarity with the traffic in the body 
and souls of men had paralyzed the consciences of a majority of our 
people. The baleful doctrine of State sovereignty had shocked and weak- 
ened the noblest and most beneficent powers of the National Govern- 
ment, and the grasping power of slavery was seizing the virgin Territo- 
ries of the West and dragging them into the den of eternal bondage. 
At that crisis the Republican party was born. It drew its first inspir- 
ation from the fire of liberty which God has lighted in every man's heart. 



THE CLIMAX OF 1880.— NOMINATION OF SHERMAN. 435 

and wliicli all the powers of ignorance and tyranny can never wholly 
extinguish. Tlie Rei)ublican party came to deliver and save the Re- 
public. It entered the arena when beleaguered and assailed Territories 
were struggling for freedom, and drew around them the sacred circle of 
lib''rt3% which the demon of slavery has never dared to cross. It made 
them fiee forever. 

" Strengthened by its victory on the frontier, the young party, under 
the leadership of that great man, who on this spot, twenty years ago, 
was made its leader, entered the national capital and assumed the high 
duties of the Government. The light which shone from its banner dis- 
pelled the darkness in which slavery had enshrouded the Capitol and 
melted the shackles of every slave, and consumed, in the fire of liberty, 
every slave-pen within the shadow of the Cai^itol. Our national indus- 
tries, by an impoverishing policy, were themselves prostrated, and the 
streams of revenue flowed in such feeble currents that the treasury itself 
was well nigh empty. The money of the people was the wretched notes 
of 2,000 uncontrolled and irresponsible state bank corporations, which 
were filling the country with a circulation that poisoned rather than sus- 
tained the life of business. 

"The Kepublican party changed all this. It abolished the babel of 
confusion and gave the country a currency as national as its flag, based 
upon the sacred faith of the people. It threw its protecting arm around 
our great industries, and they stood erect as with new life. It filled 
with the spirit of true nationality all the great functions of the Govern- 
ment, It confronted a rebellion of unexampled magnitude, with a 
slavery behind it, and, under God, fought the final battle of lil)erty until 
victory was won. Then, after the storms of battle, were heard the sweet, 
calm words of peace uttered by the conquering nation, and saying to the 
conquered foe that lay prostrate at its feet, ' This is our only revenge, 
that you join us in lifting to the serene firmament of the Constitution, 
to shine like stars forever and forever, the immortal principles of truth 
and justice, that all men, white or black, shall be free and stand equal 
before the law.' Then came the questions of reconstruction, the public 
debt, and the public fiiith. 

"In the settlement of these questions the Republican party has com- 
pleted its twenty-five years of glorious existence, and it has sent us here 
to prepare it for another lustrum of duty and of victory. IIow sliall we 
do this great work? We can not do it, my friends, by assailing our Re- 



5^ 436 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

publican brethren. God forbid that I should say one word to ca.=;t a 
shadow upon any name on the roll of our heroes. This coming fight is 
our Thermopylae. We are standins: upon a narrow isthmus. If our 
Spartan hosts are united we can withstand all the Persians that the 
Xerxes of Democracy can bring against us. 

"Let us liold our ground this one year, for the stars in their courses 
fijjht for us in the future. The census to be taken this year will brincr 
reinforcements and continued power. But, in order to win this victory 
now, we want the vote of every Republican, of every Grant Republican 
in America, of every Blaine man and every anti-Blaine man. Tlie vote 
of every follower of every candidate is needed to make our success cer- 
tain ; therefore I say, gentlemen and brethren, we are here to calmly 
counsel together, and inquire what we shall do. [A voice: 'Nominate 
Garfield.' — Great applause.] 

" We want a man whose life and oi)inlons embody all the achieve- 
ments of whicli I have spoken. We Avant a man Avho, standing on a 
mountain height, sees all the achievements of our past history, and car- 
ries in his heart the memory of all its glorious deeds, and who, looking 
forward, prepares to meet the labor and the dangers to come. We want 
one Avho will act in no spirit of unkindness toward those we lately met 
in battle. The Republican party offers to our brethren of the KSouth the 
olive branch of peace, and wishes them to return to brotherhood, on this 
supreme condition, that it shall be admitted, forever and for evermore, 
that, in the war for the Union, we were right and they were wrong. 
On that supreme condition we meet them as brethren, and no other. 
We ask them to share with us the blessings and honors of this great 
Republic. 

"Now, gentlemen, not to weary you, I am about to present a name 
for your consideration — the name of a man Avho was the comrade, and 
associate, and fiiend of nearly all those noble dead whose faces look down 
upon us from tliese walls to-night ; a man who began his career of pub- 
lic service twenty -five years ago, whose first duty Avas courageously done 
in the days of peril on the plains of Kansas, Avhen the first red drops of 
that bloody shoAver began to fall which finally swelled into the deluge 
of Avar. He braveh'^ stood bv A'onnc;' Kansas then, and, returning to his 
duty in the national legislature, through all subsequent time his patlnvay 
has been marked by labors performed in every department of legislation. 

"You ask for his monuments. I point you to tAvcnty-fiA'e A^ears of the 



THE CLIMAX OF iSSO.— ADJOURNS TILL MONDAY. 437 / 

national statutes. Not one great bcneficeut statute has been placed on 
our statute books without liis intelligent and powerful aid. He aided 
these uieu to formulate the laws that raised our great arniie.s and carried 
us tlirough the war. His hand was seen in the workmanship of those 
statutes that restored and brought back the unity and married calm of 
the States. His baud was in all that great legislation that created the 
war currency, and in a greater work that redeemed the promises of the 
Government, and made the currency equal to gold. And when, at last, 
called from the halls of legislation into a high executive office, hc.dis- 
played that experience, intelligence, firmness, and poise of character 
v.liich has carried us tlu-ough a stormy period of three years. With one- 
half the public press crying 'Crucify him!' and a hostile Cougress seeking 
to prevent success — iu ail this he reniuiued unmoved until victory crowned 
him. 

" Th€ great fiscal affiiirs of the nation and the great business interests 
of the ouuutry he has guarded and preserved, while executing the law 
of resujnption and effecting its olject without a jar, and against the 
false prophecies of one-half of the press and all the Democracy of this 
continent. He has shown himself able to meet with calmness the great 
emergencies of the Government for twenty-five years. He has trodden 
the perilous heights of public duty, and against all the shafts of malice 
has borne his breast unharmed. He has stood in the blaze of ' that fierce 
light that beats against the throne,' but its fiercest ray ha;S found no flaw 
in his armor, no stain on his shield. 

"I do not present him as a better Republican, or as a better man than 
thousands of others we honor, but I present him for your deliberate cou- 
sideratiou- I nominate Joha Sherman, of Ohio." 

The -addresses of Conlding and Garfield arc given here, that the 
reader may contrast these tMo great loaders at their best. Gar- 
field's speech made a profound impression, not only on the Con- 
vention, but on the country,— and strengtlicutd tin- already 
powerful sentiment in favor of making himself the nominci'. 

Edmunds and Washburne were the only oIIkm- nominations 
proposed. Tliev, witli Sherman, wa^re minor candidates, >\hoso 
only hope lay in the enmity of the Grant and Blaine factions, 
^vhose evenly -balanced powers would prevent the success of .Mther. 

At twelve o'clock the Convention adjourned over ti;] Monday, 



f^ 438 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

— but not for a Sabbath of repose ! On Sunday very few of the 
delegates found time for church, but devoted the day to mustering 
forces, polishing arms, and a general preparation for the battle of 
the ballots on Monday. Of the group of great men who led these 
hosts of enthusiasts, Garfield was one of the very, very few, who 
attended religious worship. Bound by the good habit of Sabbath 
observance, he went his solitary way to a little congregation of 
Disciples, where the tumult and turmoil of the time was smoothed 
away in peaceful contemplation of the eternal. 

A bright, cool, and delightful morning made the Convention 
open pleasantly on Monday, and at half-past ten the Hall was 
filled with an immense crowd, made up largely of ladies, come 
to see the climax of this great battle, and to be in at the finish. 
The Blaine men were confident. Grant's followers were not so 
confident, but still determined. All were hopeful, as the uncer- 
tain always may possibly favor us, and most men believe in the 
luck of their own stars. 

On motion, when called to order, the roll of States was called 
for the first ballot, which appea'"3 in full on the opposite page. 

After this vote it became evident that there would be no imme- 
diate choice, and with a long breath of resignation to its fate, the 
multitude settled down to a prospectively long siege. There were 
twenty-eight successive ballots taken, when the day's work ended, 
and still no choice. 

On Tuesday, June 8, the sixth and last day of the Convention, 
the great work of nomination was completed. " It was done, and 
well done." We give the work of the day somewhat in detail : 

On the twenty-ninth ballot Sherman's vote suddenly went up 
from 91 on the previous ballot to 116. This resulted from a 
change in Massachusetts, which broke for him to the extent of 
twenty-one votes. On the thirtieth he reached his best vote, 120, 
and then steadily sank to 99 on the thirty-fifth ballot. 

Finally that wonderful Grant column of three hundred and five, 
Avhich had stood so nobly by their great candidate for many hours, 
began to gain. Pennsylvania gave him an increase, and on the 
thirty-fourth ballot he had 312 votes. It then became evident 
that the anti-Grant factions must combine at once, or be beaten. 



THE CLIMAX OF 1880— THE FIRST BALLOT. 



439 X 



FIRST VOTE. 



STAT-Rfl. 


O 

-t 

o 


W 
p'_ 

a 


GO 
■-s 

B 
a 


cr 

c 


3 


3 



B 


Alabama 


12 


1 


3 








Arkaiisafi 








{California 


12 










{Colorado 


G 










C!onnectipiit 


6 






2 




Dp! M wart* 






Florida 


8 

6 

24 

1 










^porp"ia. 


8 
10 
26 
22 

6 

1 

2 
14 

7 

'2! " 


8 
2 








Illiuois 


S 
1 



















l\nTi*<afi . ........... 


4 
20 

8 










TCpTitnolcv 


3 

6 








T^tiiisiana 


















•3 

1 


2 

2 








^tassachusetts 


1 


26 




IVnphip^/in 




All n nr'^">t.:L 








10 


iVTiAAmKi riDi 


6 

29 


4 


6 










1 








6 

G 
10 
16 
17 

""9" 

6 

23 

8 

"e 

2 




































2 
14 
34 


2 






^J^pw "N nrlr 


51 
6 






"^r»rtli (~^'» fi'^lin'* 








Oliio 




1 












32 


3 








Tlhridp I^l.and 




.... 






13 
16 
11 


1 
1 
2 








Tennessee 


...... 


1 




Texa^ 






10 






18 
1 
1 


3 

8 

7 
2 

1 



•J 

2 

1 

2 

1 
2 

1 


1 
















3 


!^ 














1 












1 












1 






TTtuli 


1 




















Dakota 


1 1 
1 












i 






Wyoming 


! ■ 1 


1 







TOTAX 


301 


284 


93 


1 30 


1 3-1 


10 



440 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

It was at this point tliat AVisconsiu pointed them the way to 
victory. Garfield's manly course in the Convention had cre- 
ated a favorable impression on all sides, the result of which in 
the Wisconsin delegation was that he was freely talked of for 
second choice. They held no caucus, and during the night of 
"Monday were anxiously waiting to see some other State make the 
break for Garfield. After the adjournment on ^Monday night the 
matter was talked up in the delegation, and it was agreed that, if 
no other solution offered itself within three or four ballots, the 
delegation would throw its solid strength to Garfield. No con- 
sultation was had on the subject with the other leaders, as it was 
intended to operate as a feeler, Wisconsin being among the last 
States called on the roll. The result of this feeler is now a 
matter of history. The thirty-fifth ballot developed a Garfield 
strength of 50 votes. 

Amid the most intense excitement another call was ordered. It 
was Grant or Garfield — which? 

Here General Garfield rose to a question of order. He chal- 
lenged the vote on the ground that votes had been given for him 
without his consent, which consent he absolutely refused to give. 
The point was overruled. The roll call proceeded. When Con- 
necticut was reached, eleven of the twelve votes were given for 
Garfield. This was the beginning of the excitement. Then Illinois 
gave seven votes for Garfield, followed by Indiana with twenty- 
nine votes. Next came Iowa, Avhich had voted for Blaine on 
every ballot, with its full twenty-two votes for Garfield. When 
Maine was reached it voted for Garfield. This settled the ques- 
tion. Blaine was out of the field, and Garfield was speedily 
nominated. A'ermont, Edmunds' State, gave a solid vote for 
Garfield. 

At this point the people could no longer be controlled. The 
breeze had grown into a storm of enthusiasm. Delegates crowded 
around Garfield; the people in the galleries, ignoring the lines 
that had divided them, cheered and waved their hats and hand- 
kerchiefs. In this 10,000 people were engaged. It was taken up 
by almost as many people on the outside, where cannon were also 



THE CLIMAX OF 1880.— GARFIELD AND ARTIIT'R. 441 X 

discharged. The scene was one that will not soon be forgotten 
by those who were present. Kepublicans, without regard to i)re- 
vious differences, felt and acted as if a great and crushing weight 
had been removed, and as if tlicy had safely cniergcd from an 
impending danger — a danger that threatened the very existence 
of the party. 

The result was read out as follows : AVhole number of votes, 
755; necessary to a choice, 378; Grant, 30G; Blaine, 42; ISher- 
man, 3; Washburne, 5; Garfield, 391). 

There was immense cheering, and the Chairman found it dilli- 
cult to restore order. But order being secured, ho said : " James 
A. Garfield is nominated for Fresidcnt of the United States." 

In the midst of all this, Garfield sat deeply moved. He was 
overwhelmed. Loud calls of " Platform " and " S])cech " were 
unheard by him, and he sat silently iu the heart of the hurricane 
which had caught him up. 

As soon as a hearing could be obtained, Mr. Conkling arose, 
and, after a few remarks on the subject of unity and harmony, and 
in praise of the nominee, moved that the nomination be made 
unanimous. This motion was seconded, with warm pledges of sup- 
port, by several distinguished gentlemen, previous leaders of fac- 
tions, now leaders of a united and satisfied political party. 

At half-past two o'clock the Convention adjourned to meet again 
at seven in the evening. In view of the flict that the man nom- 
inated for the second place on the National ticket was, in fact, a 
future president, it may be well to give this closing session a pass- 
ing notice. 

When the time of reassembling came, business was begun at 
once. The principal names presented for Vice-President were : 
Elihu B. Washburne, of Illinois ; ^larshall Jewell, of Connecticut ; 
and Chester A. Arthur, of New York. On the first and only 
ballot the New York gentleman received 4GS votes to 2.S.S ll.r m11 
others. A vote to make the romination unanimous carried willi :i 
good will, and Garfield and Arthur were at last before the country 
on their records and their characters, both to be approved and both 
to be elected. 



o 



/ 442 



LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 



The following table gives the results of each ballot in the well- 
contested struggle, of which this brief chronicle has been trying to 
tell the story: 



BALLOTS. 



First 

Second 

Third 

Fourth 

Fifth 

Sixth 

Seventli 

Eighth 

Ninth 

Tenth 

Eleventh 

Twelfth 

Thirteenth 

Fourteenth 

Fifteenth 

Sixteenth 

Seventeenth 

Eighteenth 

Nineteenth 

Twentieth 

Twenty-first 

Twenty-second . . . 

Twenty-third 

Twentv-fourth. . . . 

Twenty-fifth 

Twenty-sixth 

Twenty -seventh.. . 

Twenty-eighth 

Twenty-ninth . . . . 

Thirtieth 

Thirty -first 

Thirtv-second. . . . 

Thirty-third 

Thirty-fourth 

Thirty-fifth 

Thirty-sixth 



O 

3 



304 

305 

305 

305 

305 

305 

305 

306 

308 

305 

305 

304 

305 

305 

309 

306 

303 

305 

305 

308 

305 

305 

304 

305 

302 

303 

306 

307 

305 

306 

308 

309 

309 

312 

313 

.306 



2 
5* 

05 



284 
282 
282 
281 
281 
280 
281 
284 
282 
282 
281 
283 
285 
285 
281 
283 
284 
283 
279 
276 
276 
275 
275 
279 
281 
280 
277 
279 
278 
279 
276 
270 
276 
275 
257 
42 



CO 

o 
-t 
a 

3 



93 

94 

93 

95 

95 

95 

94 

91 

90 

92 

93 

92 

89 

89 

88 

88 

90 

91 

96 

93 

96 

97 

97 

93 

94 

93 

93 

91 

118 

120 

118 

117 

110 

107 

99 

3 



30 

31 

31 

31 

31 

31 

31 

32 

32 

32 

32 

33 

33 

35 

36 

36 

36 

35 

32 

35 

35 

35 

36 

35 

35 

36 

36 

35 

35 

33 

37 

44 

44 

30 

23 



a- 

3 



34 

32 

32 

32 

32 

32 

32 

31 

31 

31 

31 

31 

31 

31 

31 

31 

31 

31 

31 

31 

31 

31 

31 

31 

31 

31 

31 

31 

12 

11 

11 

11 

11 

U 

11 



o 
B 



10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

7 

4 

3 

3 

4 

4 

3 



O 
p 
't 
a-. 



1 
1 
1 
1 

2 
2 

2 
2 

2 

2 

2 
o 

1 
1 
1 

17 

50 

399 



n 



a, 
p 



P 

3 



P 



CAI^DIDATE FOR THE PEESIDEXCY.— POLICY OF MU^I. 443 ^ 
CHAPTER XI. 

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 

To be tlius made a mark conspicuous 
For Envy's shaft and hrutal prejudice — 
To hear above the biud huzzas the voice 
Of some Satanic fool's malignity 
Roaring along the wind, like a wild ass 
Braying th' Assyrian desert, and to doubt 
The applauding throng that gathers eagerly 
To share the sunshine or perchance to weave 
Some subtle scheme of selrishness, — all this 
Is what the orators and poets call 
The crowning honor! 

ACAXDIDATE for public office has a difficult part to play. 
There is constant and imminent danger that he will commit 
some blimder, and thereby put himself on the defensive. The fear 
of doing or saying something which shall put a club into the 
hands of the enemy haunts both himself and his friends. He 
is obliged to stand for some months on a high platform i)i the 
market-place, saying to the whole world : " Now get out your mi- 
croscopes and your telescopes; with the one examine me, and with 
the other examine the heavens of ray past, and see if you can't 
find something that shall make me wince — some tender spot which 
you may prod and make me cry out with pain." 

Notably does a candidate for the presidency suffer from expos- 
ure to this fierce light and heat. All summer long he must be 
scrutinized and assailed. All kinds of attack he must meet with 
equanimity. Every sort of missile he must face, from the keenest- 
barbed arrovv-s of analysis and satire to the vulgarest discharges 
of mud. To be angered is a sign that he is hurt; to Ixar it 
without flinching is a sign of indifferent rcprobacy ; to do notlmig 
at all is a sign of cowardice! Of a certainty the American ^x-oplc 
will see their man. They will licar him, if lie can be tortured 
into opening his mouth. To all this we must add the diabolical 
ingenuity of that inciuisitor-gencral of the ages, the "interviewer" 
of the public press— that wizen-fiiced mixture of gindet, cork- 
screw, and blood-sucker, who squeezes in, and bores, and pumps. 



^*444 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

and then goes away with a bucket filled with the ichor of his own 
imagination. This he retails to the public as the very wine of truth ! 
All the dangers of the case considered, the candidate generally 
adopts the policy of mum. He becomes i>vo tempore a universal 
know-nothing. He has no ideas, no thoughts, no opinions. He 
has no political preferences. He has not heard the news from 
Europe. He does not know whether the Danubian provinces can 
compote with the American wheat-fields or not. He has never 
heard that there is an English market fi)r American beef. He has 
never read a book. His family receive the newspapers; he does 
not read them. The grave problem as to whether the ISIississippi 
runs by St. Louis he has not fully considered. The time of the 
year and the day of the week are open questions which he has not 
investigated. Such matters should be referred to the managers of 
the observatory and the bureau of statistics. Only on two things 
does he plant himself firmly ; to wit, the Niceue Creed and the 
platform of his party ! 

How would General Garfield, now that he was nominated, bear 
himself before the country ? Could one who had so long been ac- 
customed to speaking out in meeting hold his peace, and assume 
the role of the typical ,know-nothing? The General seems not to 
have taken counsel with any body on this question, but simply to 
have made up his mind that the mum policy was pusillanimous, 
and that for himself he would continue to talk to his neighbors 
and friends and the general public just as usual. This was, ac- 
cording to the judgment of the trimmers, an alarming decision. 
Even thoughtful politicians were doubtiul whether the outspoken, 
talking policy could be trusted. But General Garfield soon taught 
them and the country at large the useful lesson that a man can 
talk without being a fool. He began at once to converse freely 
on all proper occasions, to make little speeches to delegations of 
friends who came from all directions to pay their respects, and to 
■ abandon, both theoretically and practically, the monastic method of 
running for office. 

But let us resume the narrative. In the evening after his nom- 
ination the General v/as called upon at the parlors of the Grand 



CANDIDATE FOR THE PKESTDEXCY.-SPEECIT OF ACCEPTANCE. 4-lo 

Pacific Hotel, and in the presence of a great company of ladies and 
gentlemen was formally notified of his nomination. Senator Hoar 
headed the committee appointed to carry the news to the nominee, 
and to receive, in due season, his response. The committee con- 
fronted General Garfield, and the distinguished chairman said : 

"General Garfield: The gentlemen present are appointed by the Na- 
tional Republican Convention, representatives of every State in the 
Union, and have been directed to convey to 3'ou the formal ceremonial 
notice of your nomination as the Republican candidate for the office of 
President of the United States. It is known to you that the convention 
■which has made this nomination assembled divided in opinion and in 
council in regard to the candidate. It may not be known to you with 
what unanimity of pleasure and of hopes the convention has received the 
result which it has reached. You represent not oidy the distinctive 
principles and opinion of the Republican party, but you represent also 
its unity ; and in the name of every State in the Union represented on 
the committee, I convey to you the assurance of the cordial support of 
the Republican party of these States at the coming election." 

At the conclusion of Senator Hoar's speech. General Garfield 
replied with great gravity and composure: 

"Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: I assure you that the information you 
have officially given to me brings the sense of very grave responsibility, 
and especially so in view of the fact that I was a member of your hotly, 
a fact that could not have existed with propriety had I had the sliglitest 
expectation that my name would l^e connected with the nomination for 
the office. I have felt, with you, groat solicitude concerning the situa- 
tion of our party during the strnggle ; but, believing that j'ou are correct 
in assuring me that substantial unity has been reached in the conclusion, 
it gives me a gratification far greater than any personal pleasure your 
announcement can bring. 

"I accept the trust committed to my hands. As to the work of our 
party, and as to the character of tlie campaign to be entered upon, I will 
take an early occasion to reply more fully than I can properly do to- 
night. 

"I thank you fir the assurances of confidence and esteem yon have 
presented to me, and hope we shall see our future as promising ns arc 
indications to-night." 



V 

/ ■ 



446 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

As soon as the morning broke, General Garfield made prepara- 
tions for starting home. It seldom falls to the lot of man to re- 
turn home under such circumstances. He was followed by the 
eyes of millions. A special car whirled him away ^n triumph. 
By his side were a multitude of distinguished friends. A candi- 
date for the presidency of the United States is not likely to want 
for friends. Those who accompanied General Garfield, however, 
were, for the most part, the genuine article. Many of them were 
his old comrades in arms; others were prominent politicians, some 
of them, no doubt, busy in constructing the fabric of a new ad- 
ministration with themselves for possible corner-stones. 

At La Porte, Indiana, the train made a halt. That great 
ors-an of American noise, the brass band, came down the street 
with a multitudinous citizenship at its heels. The huzzas called 
out the General. He was introduced by Governor Foster, of 
Ohio. Then there were more huzzas, and the train rolled away. 
The same happened at South Bend, at Elkhart, at Goshen, and 
at all the other points, great and small, between Chicago and 
Cleveland. At the latter city there was an immense demonstra- 
tion. The spacious depot was crowded with an enthusiastic 
throng, that burst out with far-resounding cheers as the General's 
train came in. The city was all in a flutter, and it became evident 
that the jieopJe were up and stirring. The great Ohioan was 
driven to the hotel, and, in response to a speech of welcome, said : 

''Fellow-citizens of my native county and of my State: I thank you for 
this remarkable demonstration of your good-will and enthusiasm on tliis 
occasion. I can not at this time proceed upon any speech. All that I 
have to say is, that I know that all this demonstration means your glad- 
ness at the unity and harmony and good feeling of a great political party, 
and in part your good feeling toward a neighbor, an old friend. For 
all of these reasons I thank you, and bid you good night." 

The following day, the 10th of June, was passed at Cleveland, 
and on the morrow General Garfield visited his old school at 
Hiram. The commencement exercises were set for that day, and 
the distinguished nominee was under promise to speak. Here 
were gathered his old friends and neighbors. Here he had first 



\ ^ 



.% 



CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY.— SPEECH AT IIIRA 



met his wife. She, with the boys, was now a part of lier husba, 
audience. Here was the scene of his early struggles for discipl 
and distinction. Here he had been a bell-ringer, a student, a col- 
lege professor, a president. Here he had seen the horizon of his 
orphanage and boyhood sink behind him, and the horizon of an 
auspicious future rise upon his vision. Before the vast throng of 
visitors and students, at the appointed hour, he rose and delivered 
his address as follows : 

" FeUoiv-citizens, old neighbors and friemh of many years: It has always 
given me pleasure to come back here and look upon these faces. It has 
always given me new courage and new friends, for it has brought back a 
large share of that richness which belongs to those things out of which 
come the joys of life. 

" While sitting here this afternoon, Avutching your faces and listening 
to the very interesting address which has just been delivered, it has 
occurred to me that the least thing you have, that all men have enough 
of, is perhaps the thing that you care for the least, and that is your 
leisure — the leisure you have to think ; the leisure you have to be let 
alone; the leisure you have to throw the plummet into your mind, and 
sound the depth and dive for things below; the leisure you have to walk 
about the towers yourself, and find how strong they are or bow weak 
they are, to determine what needs building up; how to work, and how- 
to know all that shall make you the final beings you are to be. Oh, 
these hours of building ! 

"If the Superior Being of the universe would look down upon the 
world to find the most interesting object, it would be the unfinished, un- 
formed character of the young man or young woman. Those behind me 
have probably in the main settled this question. Those who have 
passed into middle manhood and middle womanhood are about what 
they shall always be, and there is but little left of interest, as their char- 
acters are all developed. 

"But to your young and your yet unformed natures, no man knows 
the possibilities that lie before you in your hearts and intellects; and, 
while you are working out the possil)ilitics with that splendid leisure that 
you need, you are to be mo^ envied. I congratulate you on yinir leisure. 
I commend you to treat it as your gold, as your wealth, as your treasure, 
out of which you can draw all possible treasures that can bo laid down 



448 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

■when you have your natures unfolded £^id developed in the possibilities 
of the future. 

"This place is too full of memories for me to trust myself to speak 
upon, and I will not. But I draw again to-day, as I have for a quarter 
of a century, life, evidence of strengtli, coufidence and affection from the 
people who gather in this place. I thank you for the permission to see 
you and meet you and greet you as I have done to-day." 

After this reunion with his old friends at Hiram, General Gar- 
field was, on the morning of the 12th of June, driven to Mentor 
and Painesville. At both places he was received with great en- 
thusiasm, and at the latter place, in response to the speech of 
welcome, made the following characteristic address: 

" Felloiv-citizem and neighbors of Lake County: I am exceedingly glad 
to know that vou care enough to come out on a hot day like this, in the 
midst of vour busy work, to congratulate me. I know it comes from the 
hearts of as noble a people as lives on the earth. [Cheers.] In my 
somewhat long public services there never has been a time, in however 
great difficulties I may have been placed, that I could not feel the 
strength that came from resting back upon the people of the Nineteenth 
District. To know that they were behind me with their intelligence, 
their critical judgment, their confidence and their support was to make 
me strong in every thing I undertook that was right. I have always 
felt your sharp, severe, and just criticism, and my worthy, noble, sup- 
porting friends always did what they believed was right. I know you 
have come here to-day not altogether, indeed not nearly, for my sake, 
but for the sake of the relations I am placed in to the larger constitu- 
ency of the people of the United States. It is not becoming in me to 
speak, nor shall I speak, one word touching politics. I know you are 
here to-day without regard to politics. I know you are all here as my 
n(?ighbors and ray friends, and, as such, I greet you and thank you for 
this candid and gracious welcome. [Cheers.] Thus far in my life I 
have sought to do what I could according to my light. More than that 
I could never hope to do. All of that I shall try to do, and if I can 
continue to have the good opinion of my neighbors of this district, it 
"will be one of my greatest satisfactions. I thauk you again, fellow- 
citizens, for this cordial and ge^erous welcome." [Applause and cheers.] 



CANDIDATE FOR THE PEESIDENCY.— AT WASHINGTON. 449 ^ 

4 

After some days of rest at his home, General Garfield repaired 
to Washington City, where he arrived on the 15th day of June. 
Everywhere along the route the railway stations and towns were 
cro\vded with people, anxious to catch a glimpse and hear a word 
from the probable President. Arriving at the Capital, he \Tas, on 
the evening of the 16th, serenaded at his hotel, and, responding 
to the cheers of the crowd, appeared on the balcony and made the 
following happy speech : 

''Felloiv-ciWzens: While I have looked upon this great array, I believe 
I have gotten a new idea of the majesty of the American people. When 
I reflect that wherever you find sovereign power, every reverent heart 
on this earth bows before it, and when I remember that here for a hun- 
dred years we have denied the sovereignty of any man, and in place of 
it we have asserted the sovereignty of all in place of one, I see before 
me so vast a concourse that it is easy for me to imagine that the rest of 
the American people are, gathered here to-night, and if they were all 
here, every man would stand uncovered, all in unsandaled feet in presence 
of the majesty of the only sovereign power in this Government under 
Almighty God. [Cheers.] And, therefore, to this great audience I pay 
the respectful homage that in part belongs to the sovereignty of the 
people. I thank you for this great and glorious demonstration. I am 
not, for one moment, misled into believing that it refers to so poor a thing 
as any one of our number. I know it means your reverence for your 
Government, your reverence for its laws, your reverence for its institu- 
tions, and your compliment to one who is placed for a moment in relations 
to you of peculiar importance. For all these reasons I thank you. 

I can not at this time utter a word on the subject of general politics. 
I would not mar the cordiality of this welcome, to which to some extent 
all are gathered, by any reference except to the present moment and its 
significance; but I wish to say that a large portion of this assemblage 
to-night are my comrades, late of the war for the Union. For them I 
can speak with entire propriety, and can say that these very streets heard 
the measured tread of your disciplined feet, years ago, when the imporilod 
Republic needed your hands and your hearts to save it, and you came 
back with your numbers decimated; but those you left behind were 
immortal and glorified heroes forever ; and those you brought back came, 
carrying under tattered banners and in bronze hands the ark of the covenant 
29 



^7 ^ 



450 



LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 



of your Republic in safety out of the bloody baptism of the war [cheers], 
and you brought it in safety to be saved forever by your valor and the 
wisdom of your brethren who were at home; and by this you were again 
added to the great civil army of the Republic. I greet you, comrades 
and fejiow-soldiers, and the great body of distinguished citizens who are 
gathered here to-night, who are the strong stay and support of the 
business, of the prosperity, of the peace, of the civic ardor and glory of 
the Republic, and I thank you for your welcome to-night. It was said 
in a welcome to one who came to England to be a part of her glory — and 
all the nation spoke when it was said : 

" ' Normans and Saxons and Danes are we, 
But all of us Danes in our welcome of thee.' 

"And we say to-night, of all nations, of all the people, soldiers and 
civilians, there is one name that welds us all into one. It is the name of 
American citizen, under the union and under the glory of the flag that 
led us to victory and to peace. [Applause.] For this magnificent wel- 
come I thank you with all there is in my heart." 




VII 'V OF MENTOR. 



On the next evening after this address, General Garfield Avas 
given a reception and banquet, at which were present many of the 
most distinguished men of the nation. Then, after a brief stay at 
Washington, he returned to Mentor, hoping to enjoy a respite 
from the excitements of the hour. But there was little hope of 
rest for one who by the -will of the millions had thus been whirled 
into the blazing focus of expectation. 



2i. 



CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY.— PAINESVILLE. 451 

On the 3d of July the Soldiers' Monument at Painesville, Oliio, 
was formally dedicated. General Garfield was present on the 
occasion, and after the principal oration, was called upon to speak. 
His address created great enthusiasm, especially among the vet- 
erans, who were gathered in great numbers to hear their old 
leader. General Garfield said: 

"Fellow-citizens: I can not fail to respond on such an occasion, in sight 
of such a monument to such a cause, sustained by such men. [Applause 
and cheers.] Wliile I ha^-e listened to what my friend has said, two 
questions have been sweeping through my heart. One was, ' Wliat does 
the monument mean?' and the other, 'What will the monument teach?' 
Let me try and ask you for a moment, to help me answer what does the 
monument mean. Oh! the monument means a world of memories, a 
world of deeds, and a world of tears, and a world of glories. You know, 
thousands know, what it is to offer up your life to the country, and that 
is no small thing, as every soldier knows. Let me put the question to 
you: For a moment suppose your country in the awfully embodied form 
of majestic law, should stand above you and say: 'I want your life. 
Come up here on the platform and offer it.' How many would walk up 
before that majestic presence and say, 'Here I am, take this life and use 
it for your great needs.' [Applause.] And yet almost two millions of 
men made that answer [applause], and a monument stands yonder to com- 
memorate their answer. That is one of its meanings. But, my friends, 
let me try you a little further. To give up life is much, for it is to give 
up wife, and home, and child, and ambition. But let me test you this 
way further. Suppose this awfully majestic form should call out to you, 
and say, 'I ask you to give up health and drag yourself, not dead, but 
half alive, through a miserable existence for long years, until you perish 
and die in your crippled and hopeless condition. I ask you to volunteer 
to do that,' and it calls for a higher reach of patriotism and self-sacrifice; 
but hundreds of thousands of you .'soldiers did that. That is what the 
monument means also. But let me ask you to go one step further. Sup- 
pose your country should say, 'Come here, on this platform, and in my 
name, and for my sake, consent to be idiots. [Voice — Hear, hear.] 
Consent that your very brain and intellect shall be broken down into 
hopeless idiocy for my sake.' How many could be found to niiike (hat 
venture? And yet there are thousands, and that with th.ir cvts wide 
open to the horrible consequences, obeyed that call. 



t r B 

452 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIEI.D. 

"And let me tell how one hundred thousand of our soldiers were 
prisoners of war, and to many of them when death was stalking near, 
when famine was climbing up into their hearts, and idiocy was threatening 
all that was left of their intellects, the gates of their prison stood open 
every day, if they would quit, desert their flag and enlist under the flag 
of the enemy ; and out of one hundred and eighty thousand not two per 
cent, ever received the liberation from death, starvation and all that 
might come to them; but they took all these horrors and all these suffer- 
ings in preference to going back upon the flag of their country and the 
glory of its truth. [Applause.] Great God ! was ever such measure of 
patriotism reached by any men on this earth before ? [Applause.] That 
is what your monument means. By the subtle chemistry that no man 
knows, all the blood that was shed by our brethren, all the lives that 
were devoted, all the grief that was felt, at last crystallized itself into 
granite rendered immortal, the great truth for which they died [applause], 
and it stands there to-day, and that is what your monument means. 

" Now, what does it teach ? What will it teach ? Why, I remember 
the story of one of the old conquerors of Greece, who, when he had 
traveled in his boyhood over the battle-fields where Miltiades had won 
victories and set up trophies, returning said : ' These trophies of Milti- 
ades will never let me sleep.' Why? Something had taught him from 
the chiseled stone a lesson that he could never forget; and, fellow-citizens, 
that silent sentinel, that crowned granite column, will look down upon 
the boys that will walk these streets for generations to come, and will 
not let them sleep when their country calls them. [Ajiplause.] More 
than from the bugler on the field, from his dead lips will go out a call 
that the children of Lake County will hear after the grave has covered 
us and our immediate children. That is the teaching of your monu- 
ment. That is its lesson, and it is the lesson of endurance for what we 
believe, and it is the lesson of sacrifices for what we think — the lesson 
of heroism for what we mean to sustain — and that lesson can not be 
lost to a people like this. It is not a lesson of revenge; it is not a lesson 
of wrath ; it is the grand, sweet, broad lesson of the immortality of the 
truth that we hope will soon cover, as the grand Shekinah of light and 
glory, all parts of this Republic, from the lakes to the gulf. [Ap- 
plause.] I once entered a house in old Massachusetts, where, over its 
doors, were two crossed swords. One was the sword carried by the 
grandfather of its owner on the field of Bunker Hill, and the other was 



2^2 

CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENCY.— LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 453 A 

tlie sword carried by the English grandsire of the wife, on the same 
field, and on the other side of the conflict. Under those crossed swords, 
in the restored harmony of domestic peace, lived a happy, and con- 
tented, and free family, under the light of our republican liberties. [Ap- 
plause.] I trust the time is not far distant when, under the crossed 
swords and the locked shields of Americans North and South, our peo- 
ple shall sleep in peace, and rise in liberty, love, and harmony under 
the union of our flag of the Stars and Stripes." 

The next public utterance of General Garfield had been anx- 
iously aAvaited. Until now he had not found time to return a 
formal answer to the committee, Avhose chairman had, on the even- 
ine: of the 8th of June, informed him of his nomination for the 
Presidency. On the 12th of July, the General, from his home at 
Mentor, issued his letter of acceptance. It was a document of con- 
siderable length, touching upon most of the political questions of 
the day, and gave great satisfaction to his party throughout the 
Union. The letter was as follows : 

"Mentor, Ohio, July 10th, 1880. 

''Dear Sir: On the evening of the 8th of June last I had the honor to 
receive from you, in the presence of the committee of which you were 
chairman, the official announcement that the Republican National Con- 
vention at Chicago had that day nominated me for their candidate for 
President of the United States. I accept the nomination with gratitude 
for the confidence it implies and with a deep sense of the responsibilities 
it imposes. I cordially indorse the principles set forth in the platform 
adopted by the convention. On nearly all the subjects of which it treats 
my opinions are on record among the published proceedings of Congress. 
I venture, however, to make special mention of some of the principal 
topics which are likely to become subjects of discussion, without reviewing 
the controversies which have been settled during the last twenty years, 
and with no purpose or wish to revive the passions of the late war. 

It should be said that while Republicans fully recognize and will 
strenuously defend all the rights retained by the people and all the 
rights reserved to the States, they reject the pernicious doctrine of Stjite 
supremacy, which so long crippled the functions of the National Gov- 
ernment and at one time brought the Union very near to destruction. 
They insist that the United States is a nation, with ample jK.wcr of self- 



tic) 

/ AiA LIFE OF'' JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

preservation ; that its Constitution and the laws made in pursuance thereof 
are the supreme law of the laud ; that the right of the nation to deter- 
mine the method by which its own legislature shall be created can not 
be surrendered without abdicating one of the fundamental powers of the 
Government; that the national laws relating to the election of repre- 
sentatives in Congress shall neither be violated nor evaded ; that every 
elector shall be permitted freely and without intimidation to cast his 
lawful ballot at such election and have it honestly counted, and that the 
potency of his vote shall not be destroyed by the fraudulent vote of any 
other person. The best thoughts and energies of our people should be 
directed to those great questions of national well-being in which we all 
have a common interest. Such efforts will soonest restore perfect peace 
to those who were lately in arms against each other, for justice and good- 
Avill will outlast passion ; but it is certain that the wounds can not be 
completely healed and the spirit of brotherhood can not fully pervade 
the whole country until every one of our citizens, rich or poor, white or 
black, is secure in the free and equal enjoyment of every civil and polit- 
ical right guaranteed by the Constitution and the laws. Wherever the 
enjoyment of this right is not assured, discontent will prevail, immigra- 
tion will cease, and the social and industrial forces will continue to be 
disturbed by the migration of laborers and the consequent diminution 
of prosperity. The National Government should exercise all its consti- 
tutional authority to put an end to these evils, for all the people and all 
the States are members of one body; and no member c:in suffer without 
injury to all. 

"The most serious evils which now afflict the South arise from the 
fact that there is not such freedom and toleration of political opinion 
and action that the minority party can exercise an effective and whole- 
some restraint upon the party in power. Without such restraint party 
rule becomes tyrannical and corrupt. The prosperity which is made 
possible in the South, by its great advantages of soil and climate,' will 
never be realized until every voter can freely and safely support any 
party he pleases. Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular 
education, without which neither justice nor freedom can be permanently 
maintained. Its interests are intrusted to the States and the voluntary 
action of the people. Whatever help the nation can justly afford should 
be generously given to aid the States in supporting common schools; 
but it would be unjust to our people and dangerous to our institutions 



,? ? 



CANDIDATE FOR PEESIDENCY.- LETTER OF ACCEl^ANCE. 455 

to apply auy portion of the revenues of the nation or of the States to 
the support of sectarian schools. The separation of the Church and the 
State in every thing relating to taxation .•should be absolute. 

On the subject of national finances my views have been so frequently and 
fully expressed that little is needed in the way of additional statement. 
The public debt is now so well secured, and the rate of annual interest has 
been so reduced by refunding, that rigid economy in expenditures and 
the faithful application of our surplus revenues to the payment of the 
principal of the debt, will gradually but certainly free the people from 
its burdens, and close with honor the financial chapter of the war. At 
the same time the Government can provide for all its ordinary expendi- 
tures, and discharge its sacred obligations to the soldiers of the Union 
and to the widows and orphans of those who fell in its defense. The 
resuihption of specie payments, which the Republican party so coura- 
geously and successfully accomplished, has removed from the field of 
controversy many questions that long and seriously disturbed the credit 
of the Government and the basiness of the country. Our paper cur- 
rency is now as national as the flag, and resumption has not only made 
it everywhere equal to coin, but has brought into use our store of gold 
and silver. The circulating medium is more abundant than ever before, 
and we need only to maintain the equality of all our dollars to insure to 
labor and capital a measure of value from the use of which no one can 
suffer loss. The great prosperity which the country is now enjoying 
should not be endangered by any violent change or doubtful financial 
experiments. 

"In reference to our custom laws, a policy should be jjursued which 
will bring revenues to the Treasury, and will enable the labor and cap- 
ital employed in our great industries to compete fairly in our own mar- 
kets with the labor and capital of foreign producers. We legislate for 
the people of the United States, not for the whole world ; and it is our 
glory that the American laborer is more intelligent and better paitl than 
his f )reign competitor. Our country can not be independent unless its 
people, with their abundant natural resources, possess the requisite skill 
at any time to clothe, arm, and equip themselves for war, and in time 
of peace to produce all the necessary implements of labor. It was the 
manifest intention of the founders of the Government to provide for the 
common defense, not by standing armies alone, but by raising among 
the people a greater army of artisans, whose intelligence and skill should 
powerfully contribute to the safety and glory of the nation. 



i^ 456 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

Fortunately for the interests of commerce there is no longer any for- 
midable opposition to appropriations for the improvement of our harbors 
and great navigable rivers, provided that the expenditures for that pur- 
j)ose are strictly limited to works of national importance. The Mississippi 
Kiver, with its great tributaries, is of such vital importance to so many 
millions of peojile that the safety of its navigation requires exceptional 
consideration. In order to secure to the nation the control of all its 
waters. President Jefferson negotiated the purchase of a vast territory, 
extending from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. The wisdom 
of Congress should be invoked to devise some plan by which that great 
river shall cease to be a terror to those who dwell upon its banks, and 
by which its shipping may safely carry the industrial products of twenty- 
five millions of people. 

"The interests of agriculture, which is the basis of all our material 
prosperity, and in which seven-twelfths of our population are engaged, 
as well as the interests of manufactures and commerce, demand that the 
facilities tor cheap transjiortation shall be increased by the use of all our 
great water courses. The material interests of this country, the tradi- 
tions of its settlement and the sentiment of our people, have led the 
Government to offer the widest hospitality to immigrants who seek our 
shores for new and happier homes, willing to share the burdens as well 
as the benefits of our society, and intending that their posterity shall 
become an undistinguishable part of our population. The recent move- 
ment of the Chinese to our Pacific coast partakes but little of the qual- 
ities of such an immigration, either in its purposes or its result. It is 
too much like an importation to be welcomed Avithout restriction ; too 
much like an invasion to be looked upon without solicitude. We can 
not consent to allow any form of servile labor to be introduced among 
us under the guise of immigration. Recognizing the gravity of this 
subject, the present administration, supported by Congress, has sent to 
China a commission of distinguished citizens for the purpose of securing 
such a modification of the existing treaty as will prevent the evils likely 
to arise from the present situation. It is confidently believed that these 
diplomatic negotiations will be successful without the loss of that com- 
mercial intercourse between the two great powers which promises a great 
increase of reciprocal trade and the enlargement of our markets. Should 
these efforts fail, it will be the duty of Congress to mitigate the evils 
already felt, and prevent their increase by such restrictions as, without 



\ 



CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENCY.— LETTEK OF ACCEPTANCE. 457 

violence or injustice, -will place upon a sure foundation the peace of our 
communities and the freedom and dignity of labor. 

''The appointment of citizens to the various executive and judicial 
offices of the Government is, perhaps, the most difficult of all duties 
which the Constitution has imposed upon the Executive. The conven- 
tion wisely demands that Congress shall cooperate with the Executive 
Department in placing the civil service on a better basis. Experience 
has proved that, with our frequent changes of administration, no system | /^ 
of reform can be made effective and permanent without the aid of legis- 
lation. Appointments to the military and naval service are so regulated 
by law and custom, as to leave but little ground of complaint. It may 
not be wise to make similar regulations by law for the civil service, but, 
without invading the authority or necessary discretion of the Executive, 
Congress should devise a method that will determine the tenure of office, 
and greatly reduce the uncertainty which makes that service so uncer- 
tain and unsatisfactory. Without depriving any officer of his rights as 
a citizen, the Government should require him to discharge all his official 
duties with intelligence, efficiency, and ftiithfulness. To select wisely 
from our vast population those who are best titted for the many offices 
to be filled, requires an acquaintance far beyond the range of any one 
man. The Executive should, therefore, seek and receive the informa- 
tion and assistance of those wliose knowledge of the communities in 
which the duties are to be performed, best qualifies them to aid in mak- 
ing the wisest choice. The doctrines announced by the Chicago CJon- 
vention are not the temporary devices of a party to atti-act votes and 
carry an election. They are delilierate convictions, resulting from a 
careful study of the spirit of our institutions, the events of our history, 
and the best impulses of our people. In my judgment, these principles 
should control the legislation and administration of the Government. In 
any event, they will guide my conduct until experience points out a 
better way. If elected, it will be my purpose to enforce strict obedience 
to the Constitution and the laws, and to promote as best I may the in- 
terest and honor of the wliolo country, relying for support u|)on the wis- 
dom of Congress, the intelligence and patriotism of the people, and the 
favor of God. 

" With great respect, I am very truly yours, 

"J. A. Gaufikld. 

"To Hon. Gi;o. F. Hoar, Ch:iirin:iii (jf the C.iiiiinittec."' 



458 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

The battle was now fairly on. The Democracy had, on the 
23d day of June, in convention at Cincinnati, nominated as their 
standard-bearer the distinguished and popular soldier, Major- 
General Winfield S. Hancock. This nomination was received by 
the General's party with as much satisfaction and enthusiasm as 
that of General Garfield had been by the Republicans. Mean- 
while, General James B. Weaver, of Iowa, had been chosen to 
make the race by the National party, in a convention held in 
Chicago, on the 9th of June. So that there w^ere presented for 
the suifrages of the people three eminent soldiers — all men of large 
abilities, undoubted patriotism, and thorough soundness of char- 
acter. It was evident, however, from the opening of the campaign, 
that the contest was narrowed to Generals Garfield and Hancock, 
with the chances in favor of the former; and as the public mind 
became warmed up to the pitch of battle, the chances of Garfield 
were augmented by almost every incident of the fight. The plat- 
forms of the two parties had both been made with a view to 
political advantage rather than to uphold any distinctive prin- 
ciples. So the fight raged backwards along the line of the history 
and traditions of the two parties rather than forward along the 
line of the living political issues of the present and the future. In 
a modified form the old questions of the war were revived and 
paraded. A delegate in the Cincinnati Convention, allowing his 
zeal to run away with his sense, had pledged a "Solid South" to 
the support of General Hancock. This sectional utterance was a 
spark dropped among the old w^ar memories of the Union soldiers; 
and the politicians were quick to fan the flame by suggesting that 
"a Solid South" ought to be confronted by "a Solid North." This 
line of argument, of course, meant ruin to the Democracy. The 
Republican leaders virtually abandoned the Southern States, and 
concentrated all their efforts upon the doubtful States of the 
Northern border. Indiana became a critical battle-field; and here 
the political fight was waged with the greatest spirit. Having a 
gubernatorial election in October, it was foreseen that to carry this 
doubtful State would be well nigh decisive of the contest, and to 
this end the best talent of both parties was hurried into her 



CANDIDATE FOR THE PKESIDENCY.-AT OENEVA. 



459 



borders. While these great movements were taking place, General 
Garfield remained;, for the most part, at his quiet home at Mentor. 




LAWNFIEI.D.— THE HOME OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD AT MENTOR. 

On the 3d of August he 'attended the dedication ceremonies of a 
soldiers' monument at Geneva, Ohio. INIore than ten thousand 
people were in attendance. After the principal address of the day 
had been delivered, General Garfield was introduced, and spoke 
as follows: 

'^Felloio-citizeiis, Ladie.i and Gentlemen: These gentlemen liad nu ri^^lit 
to print on a paper here that I was to make a speech, for the types should 
always tell the truth. [A voice— They did it this time.] They have not 
done it in this case ; hut I can not look out upon an audience in Ashtabula 
County, recognizing so many old faces and old friends, without at least 
making my bow to them, and saying 'good-bye' before I go. I can not 
either hear such a speech as that to wliich I have just listened without 
thanking the man who made it [applause] and tlie jK'ople wlio enablcdf 
him to make it [ai)phiuse], for after all no man can make a speocli alone. 
It is the great human power that strikes up from a thousand hearts that 
acts upon him and makes the speech. [.\pi)Iause.] It originates with 



460 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

those outside of him, if he makes one at' all, and every man that has 
stood on this platform to-day has had a speech made out of him by you 
and by what is yonder on your square. That's the way speeches are 
made, and if I had time to stay long enough, these forces with you might 
make one out of me. [Applause.] Ideas are the only things in the 
universe really immortal. Some people think that soldiers are chiefly 
renowned for courage. That is one of the cheapest and commonest 
qualities ; we share it with the brutes. I can find you dogs and bears 
and lions that will fight, and fight to the death, and will tear each other. 
Do you call that warfare ? Let me tell you the difference. They are as 
courageous as any of these soldiers, if mere brute courage is what you are 
after. The difference between them and us is this: Tigers never hold 
reunions [laughter] to celebrate their victories. When they have eaten 
the creature they have killed, that is the only reunion they have ever 
held. [Laughter.] Wild beasts never build monuments over their slain 
comrades. Why? Because there are no ideas behind their warfares. 
Our race has ideas, and because ideas are immortal, if they be true, we 
build monuments to them. We hold reunions not for the dead, for there 
is nothing on all the earth that you and I can do for the, dead. They are 
past our help and past our praise. We can not add more glory, and we 
can give them no immortality. They do not need us, but forever and 
forever more we need them. [Applause.] The glory that trails in the 
clouds behind them after their sun has set, falls with its benediction upon 
us who are left [applause], and it is to commemorate the immortality of 
the ideas for which they fought, that you assemble to-day and dedicate 
your monument, that points up toward God who leads them in the glory 
of the great world beyond. Around these ideas, under the leadership of 
these ideas, we assemble to-day, reverently to follow, reverently to acknowl- 
edge the glory they achieved and the benediction they left behind them. 
That is the meaning of an assembly like this, and to join in it, to meet 
you, my old neighbors and constituents, to share with you the memories 
that we have heard rehearsed and the inspiration that this day points to, 
that this monument celebrates, is to me a joy, and for it I am grateful 
to you." 

Immediately after this address at Geneva, General Garfield took 
his departure for New York, where it had been determined to hold 
a conference of the principal Republican leaders, relative to the 
conduct of the pending campaign. The standard-bearer partic- 



CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY.— AT CHAUTAUQUA. 461* 

ipated in the council of his friends, adding not a little by his 
presence and unflagging spirits to the zeal and enthusiasm of tho.se 
upon whose efforts so much depended. On the 7th he left the city 
for Lake Chautauqua, where he had decided to spend a day at the 
great Sunday-school encampment and other lakeside resorts. He 
was received with the greatest good-will by the thousands assem- 
bled at Jamestown and Chautauqua; and on the eve of his departure 
was induced, in response to salutations and cheers, to make the 
following brief address: 

"■Fellow-citizens: You have done so much to me since I arrived on this 
shore, that I am quite unable to tell what sort of man I am this morning. 
[Laughter.] I had never been here, and really did not know Avhat you 
were doing. Last evening I asked Mr. Vincent, rather brusquely, to 
tell me what Chautauqua means — what your work here means — and he 
filled me so full of your ideas that I have not yet assimilated it so as to 
be quite sure what manner of man I am since I got hold of it. But this 
I see, you are struggling with one of the two great problems of civiliza- 
tion. The first one is a very old question — 'How shall we get leisure?' 
That is the object of eveiy hammer stroke, of every blow that labor has 
struck since the foundation of the world. [Applause.] The fight fir 
bread is a great primal fight, and it is so absorbing a struggle that until 
one conquers to some extent he can have no leisure. We may divide 
the struggles of the human race into two chapters : First, the fight to 
get leisure, and, second, what to do with our leisure when we have won 
it. It looks to me that Chautauqua has solved the second problem. 
[Applause.] Like all blessings, leisure is a very bad thing unless it is 
well used. The man with a fortune ready made, and with lei.'iure on 
his hands, is likely to get sick of the world, sick of him.self, tired of life, 
and to become a useless, wasted man. What shall you do with your 
leisure? I understand Chautauqua is trying to develop new energies, 
largeness of mind and culture in a better sense, 'with the vaniisii 
scratched off,' as our friend, Dr. Kirkwood, says. [Applaus(>.] We 
are getting over tlie fashion of painting and varnishing our native 
woods. We are getting down to the real grain, and finding whatever is 
best and most beautiful in it, and if Chautau(jua is helping to develop 
in our people the native stuff' that is in them rather than to give them 
varnish and gewgaws of culture, it is doing well. Chautauqua, there- 



462 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

fore, has filled me with thought, and, in addition to that, you have filled 
me with gratitude for your kindness and for this great spontaneous greet- 
ing in early morning, earlier than men of leisure get up. [Laughter.] 
Some of these gentlemen of the press around me looked distressed at 
the early rising by which you have compelled our whole party to look 
at the early sun. [Laughter.] This greeting on the lake slope toward 
the sun is very precious to me, and I thank you all. This is a mixed 
audience of citizens, and I will not offend the proprieties of the occasion 
by discussing controverted questions or entering upon any political dis- 
cussion. I look in the faces of men of all shades of opinion, but what- 
ever our party affiliation, I trust there is in all this audience that love 
of our beneficent institutions which makes it possible for free labor to 
earn leisure, and for our institutions to make that leisure worth some- 
thing [aj)plause] — our Union and our institutions, under the blessing of 
equal laws, equal to all colors and all conditions, an open career for 
every man, however humble, to, rise to whatever place the power of a 
strong arm, the strength of a clear head, and the aspirations of a pure 
heart can do to lift him. That prospect ought to inspii-e every young 
man in this vast audience. [Applause.] I heard yesterday and last 
night the songs of those who were lately redeemed from slavery, and I 
felt that there, too, was one of the great triumphs of the Kepublic. 
[Applause.] I believe in the efficiency of the forces that come down 
from the ages behind us, and I wondered if the tropical sun had not 
distilled its sweetness, and if the sorrow of centuries of slavery had not 
distilled its sadness into verses, which were touching, sweet verses, to 
sing the songs of liberty as they sing them wherever they go. [Ap- 
plause.] 

" I thank that choir for the lesson they have taught me here, and now, 
fellow-citizens, thanking you all, good-bye." [Applause.] 

On the 9th of the month General Garfield returned to his home, 
where he again sought a respite from the uproar and tumult of 
publicity which followed him everywhere. On the 25th of Au- 
gust, a reunion of his old regiment, the Forty-second Ohio, was 
held at Ashland, and the General could but accept an invitation 
to share the occasion with his former comrades in arms. The old 
soldiers passed a resolution, declaring it an honor that their former 
Colonel had become the conspicuous man of the nation, and com- 



CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY.— AT ASHLAND. 463 

mending him to the world as a model of all soldierly virtues. He 
was elected President of the Regimental Association for the ensu- 
ing year, and was thereupon called out for an address. The Gen- 
eral spoke as follows : 

" Fellow-citize7is : This is a family gathering, a military family, for in 
war a regiment is to the army what a family is to the whole civilized 
community. [Here a portion of the platform fell.] A military reuuiou 
without some excitement and some accident would be altogether too 
monotonous and tame to be interesting, and in this good-natured audi- 
ence we can have a good many accidents like that and still keep quiet 
and be happy. 

"I said this is a family reunion, an assembly of the Forty-second mil- 
itary family, and it is well for us to meet here. Nineteen years ago I 
met a crowd of earnest citizens in that court-room above stairs. Your 
bell was rung, your people came out. The teacher of your schools was 
among them. The boys of the school were there, and after we had 
talked together a little while, about our country and its imperiled flag, 
the teacher of the schools offered himself to his country, and twenty of 
his boys with him. They never went back into the school-house again; 
but in the dark days of November, 1861, they and enough Ashland 
County boys to make one hundred went down with me to Colundms to 
join another one hundred that had gone before them from A.shland 
County, and these two hundred of your children stood in the center of 
our military family and bore these old banners that you see tattered 
before you to-day. One of them was given to our family by the ladies 
of A.shland, and Company C, from Ashland, carried it well. It was 
riddled by bullets and torn by underbrush. Flapped by the winds of 
rebellion, it came back tattered, as you see, but with never a stain upon 
its folds, and never a touch of dishonor upon it anywhere ; and the other 
of these banners was given us by the special friends of Company A, m 
my old town of Hiram, the student company from the heart of the 
Western Reserve, and it also shared like its fellows, the fate, and came 
home covered with the glory of the conflict. 

"We were a family, I say again, and we did not let partisan politics 
disturb us then, and we do not let partisanship enter our circle here 
to-<lay. 

"We did not quarrel about controversies outside of our ;?reat work. 
We agreed to be brethren for the Union, under the flag, against all its 



464 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

enemies everywhere, and brothers to all men who stood with us under 
the flag to fight for the Union, whatever their color of skin, whatever 
their previous politics, whatever their religion. In that spirit we went 
out ; in that spirit we returned ; and we are glad to be in Ashland to- 
day, for it is one of the homes of our regiment, where we were wel- 
comed in the beginning and have always been welcome since. We are 
grateful for the welcome tendered us to-day by this great assembly of 
our old neighbors and friends of Ashland County. 

"Now, fellow-citizens, a regiment like a family has the right to be a 
little clannish and exclusive. It does not deny the right of any other 
family to the same privileges, but it holds the members of its own family 
a little nearer and a little dearer than any other fiimily in the world. 
And so the Forty-second Regiment has always been a band of brothers. 
I do not this day know a Forty-second man in the world who hates 
another Forty-second man. There never was a serious quarrel inside 
the regiment. There was never a serious disagreement between its 
officers. The worst thing I have ever heard said against it is that all 
its three field officers came home alive. And they are all here on this 
stand to-day. It was, perhaps, a little against us that no one of us had 
the honor to get killed or seriously crippled ; but we hold that it Avas not 
altogether our fault, and we trust that some day or other you will have 
forgiven us, if you have not to-day, for being alive and all here to- 
gether. 

"I want to say another thing about the soldiers' work. I know of 
nothing in all the circle of human duty that so unites men as the com- 
mon suffering and danger and struggle that war brings upon a regi- 
ment. You can not know a man so thoroughly and so soon as by the 
tremendous tests to which war subjects him. These men knew each 
other by sight long before they knew each other by heart; but before 
they got back home they knew each other, as you sometimes say you 
know a son, 'by heart;' for they had been tested by fire; they had been 
tested by starvation ; they had been tested by the grim presence of 
death, and each knew that those who remained were union men; men 
that in all the hard, close chances of life, had the stuff in them that en- 
abled them to stand up in the very extremes they did ; and stand up 
ready to die. And such men, so tried and so acquainted, never got over 
it; and the rest of the world must permit them to be just a little clannish 
•towards each other; the rest of the world will not think we are narrow 



CANDIDATE FOK THE PEESIDENCY.— AT MENTOR. 465 

when tliey consider this particular fault of ours; a little closer to us than 
any of the rest of the world in a military way. 

"Now, fellow-citizens, we are here to look into your faces, to enjoy 
your hospitality, to revive our old memories of the place, but, for more 
than any thing else, to look into each other's faces, and revive old mem- 
ories of a great many places less pleasing and home-like than Ashland. 
We have been meeting together in this way for nearly fifteen years, and 
we have made a pledge to each other that as long as there are two of 
us left to shake hands, we will meet and greet the survivor. Some of us 
felt a little hurt about ten years ago when the papers spoke of us as the 
survivors of the Forty-second Regiment. We were survivors it was 
true, but we thought we were so surviving that it need not be put at us, 
as though we wei-c about to die. Now, I don't know how it is with the 
rest of you. Most of mankind grow old, and you can see it in their 
faces. I see here and there a bald head, like my own, or a white one, 
like Captain Gardner's, but to me these men will be boys till they die. 
We call them boys ; we meet and greet them as boys, even though they 
become very old boys, and in that spirit of young, hopeful, daring man- 
hood we expect to meet them so long as we live. Nothing can get us a 
great way from each other while we live. I am glad to meet these men 
here to-day. [Here another portion of the platform broke down, precip- 
itating General Garfield and two or three of the reporters to the ground.] 
Continuing, he said: I was glad also that there was not any body hurt 
when that broke, and nobody made unhappy, and I will conclude all I 
wanted to say, more than I intended to say, by adding this: These men 
went out without one single touch of revenge in their hearts. They 
went out to maintain this Union and make it immortal; to put their own 
immortal lives into it, and to make it possible that the people of Ashland 
should make the monogram of the United States, as you sec it up there 
rXpoiuting to the monogram on the building), a wreath of Union inside 
of a very large N, a capital N, that stands for Nation, a Nation so large 
that it includes the 'U. S. A.' all the people of the Republic, and will in- 
clude it for evermore; that is what we meant then and is what we mean 
now. 

"And now, fellow-citizens and soldiers of the Forty-second Regiment — 
for I have been talking mainly to you, and if any of this crowd have 
overheard I am not particularly to blame for it— I say, fello^y-citizeng 
and comrades, I greet you to-day with great satisfaction and bid you a 

cordial good-bye." 
30 



,^ 466 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

Two days later General Garfield was present at a reunion of an 
artillery company, held at Mentor, and since they had composed 
a part of the force with which Thomas stayed at last the furious 
onset at Chickamauga, their old chief of staff w^as all the more 
willing to say a few words for their edification. This he did as 
follows: — 

" Comrades: This is really the first time I have met this battery as an 
organization since the Sunday evening of the terrible battle of Chicka- 
mauga, nearly seventeen years ago. I last saw you there in the most ex- 
posed angle of that unfortunate line, broken by the combined forces of 
Brairg and Longstreet. I then saw you gallantly fighting under the im- 
mediate direction of General Thomas, to reform that broken hne, and 
hold the exultant rebel host in check until the gallant Steedman with re- 
inforcements swept them back into the dark valley of the Chickamauga. 
I am now able todistuiguish among your numbers faces which I saw there 
in that terrible hour. But how changed! I now see you herewith your 
wives, childi-en, and friends, peaceably enjoying this grand reception of 
your friends and neighbors here assembled to honor and entertain you. 

"But nothing so attracts my attention as your young and active ap- 
pearance. It is more than eighteen years since you left for the Avar, and 
yet you are not old. Indeed, many of you appear almost like boys. 
This I am pleased to observe ; for if there be any men upon the face of 
the earth who deserve an extension of time, it is you who, in early man- 
hood, so freely gave your services to your country, that it might live. 
Nothing can be more proper than these annual reunions. I am aware 
of the reputation which this organization, as well as my own regiment, 
always enjoyed of unity and good fellowship among its oflftcers and men. 
May you, therefore, continue to enjoy and perpetuate that friendship to 
the very latest hour of your lives." 

General Garfield had now to learn that the people in their ea- 
gerness, and especially the politicians in their unselfish devotion, 
had decreed him no further rest, even at Lawnfield. Pilgrimages 
to Mentor became the order of the day. For meanwhile the Oc- 
tober elections had been held, and all had gone triumphantly for 
the Republicans. Indiana, chief of the so-called " doubtful States," 
had whirled into line with an unequivocal majority. Ohio had put 
a quietus on all hopes of the Democracy to carry her electoral 



Z39 



CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDE^X"Y.— AT MENTOR. 4G7 

votes for Hancock. The high-blown anticipations of the friends 
of "the superb soldier" were shockingly shattered. And so all 
the paths of political preferment led to Mentor ; and all the paths 
were trodden by way-worn pilgrims, who, with sandal-shoon and 
scallop-shell urged their course thither to see him who was now 
their hope. On the 19th of October a train of these pilgrims, 
rather more notable than the rest, came in from Indiana. It was 
the Lincoln Club of Indianapolis, four hundred strong. They 
were uniformed, and wore grotesque cockades extemporized out 
of straw hats into a sort of three-cornered conspicuity. The Gen- 
eral was, none the less, greatly pleased with his visitors, and 
spared no pains to make their brief stay at Mentor a pleasure, if 
not a profit. The club was formally introduced by Captain M. G. 
McLean, and in response General Garfield said : — 

" Gentlemen: You come as bearers of dispatches, so your chairman tells 
me. I am glad to hear the news you bring, and exceedingly glad to see 
the bringers of the news. Your uniform, the name of your club, the 
place from which you come, are all full of suggestions. You recol- 
lect the verses that were often quoted about the old Continental soldiers: 
"The old three-cornered hat and breeches, and all that were so queer." 
Your costume brings back to our memory the days of the Continentals 
of 1776, whose principles I hope you represent. You are called the 
Lincoln Club, and Lincoln was himself a revival, a rest<^)ration of the 
days of '76 and their doctrines. The great Proclamation of Emancipa- 
tion, which he penned, was a second Declaration of Independence — 
broader, fuller, the New Testament of human liberty; antl then you 
come from Indiana, supposed to be a Western State, but yet in its tradi- 
tions older than Ohio. IMore than one hundred years ago a gallant ^^ir- 
ginian went far up into your wilderness, captured two or three forts, took 
down the British flag, and reared the Stars and Stripes. Vincennes and 
Cahokia, and a post in Illinois, were a part of the capture. Your native 
State was one of the first fruits of that splendid fighting power which 
gave the whole West to the United States, and now these representatives 
of Indiana come representing the Revolution in your hats, representing 
Abraham Lincoln in your badges, and representing the victoiy both of 
the Revolution and of Lincoln in the news you bring. I could not be 
an American and fail to welcome your costumes, your badges, your news 



468 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

and yourselves. Many Indiana men were my comrades in the days of 
the war. I remember a regiment of them that was under my command 
near Corinth, when it seemed necessary for the defense of our forces to 
cut down a little piece of timber — seventy-five acres. We unboxed for 
my brigade about four thousand new axes, and the Fifty-first Regiment 
of Indiana Volunteers chopped down more trees in half a day than I sup- 
posed it was possible could fall in any forest in a week. It appears that 
in the great political forest from which you have just come, your axes 
have been busy again. I especially welcome the axmen of the Fifty-first 
Regiment, who may happen to be here, and thank, you all, gentlemen, 
for the compliment of your visit, and for the good news you bring. I do 
not prize that news half so much for its personal relations to you and 
to me, as I do because it is a revival of the spirit of 1776, the spirit of 
Abraham Lincoln, the spirit of universal liberty, and the spirit of just 
and equal law all over this land. That gives your news its greatest sig- 
nificance. Gentlemen, I thank you again, and shall be glad to take you 
by the hand." 

After the speeches, the members of the Lincoln Club all had 
the pleasure of shaking the hand of General Garfield, and of hear- 
ing an individual welcome from his lips. 

Two days afterwards, the Cuyahoga Veteran Corps came on a 
similar pilgrimage to La\vufield, and were similarly well received. 
General M. D. Leggett, commander of the corps, made the intro- 
ductory address ; and, in answer, General Garfield said : 

"Comrades: Any man tliat can see twelve hundred comrades in his 
front-door yard has as much reason to be proud as for any thing that can 
well happen to him in this world. After that has happened, he need not 
much care what else happens, or what else don't happen. To see twelve 
hundred men, from almost every regiment of the State, and from regi- 
ments and brigades and divisions of almost every other State— to see the 
consolidated field report of the survivors of the war, sixteen years after 
it is over— is a great sight for any man to look on. I greet you all with 
gratitude for this visit. Its personal compliment is great. 

'•But there is another thought in it far greater than that to me and 
greater to you. Just over yonder about ten miles, when I was a mere 
lad, I heard the first political speech of my life. It was a speech that 
Joshua R. Giddings was making. He had come home to appeal to his 



CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY.— AT MENTOR. 469 X 

constituents, A Southern man drew a pistol on him while lie was speak- 
ing' in I'avor of human liberty, and marched over toward him to shoot 
him down, to stop his speech and quench the voice of Hberty. I remem- 
ber but one thing that the old hero said in the course of that speech so 
long ago, and it was this: 'I knew I was speaking for liberty, and I felt 
that if the assassin had shot me down, my speech would still go on and 
triumph.' Well, now, gentlemen, there are twelve hundred, and the 
hundred times twelve hundred — the million of men that went out into 
the field of battle to fight for our Union — felt just as that speaker felt — 
that if they should all be shot down the cause of liberty would still go on. 
You and all the Union felt that around you, and above you, and behind 
you, were a force and a cause and an immortal truth that would outlive 
your bodies and mine, and survive all our brigades and all our armies and 
all our battles. Here you are to-day in the same belief. We shall all 
die, and yet we believe that after us the immortal truths for which we 
fought will live in a united Nation, a united people against all factions, 
against all section, against all division, so long as there shall be a conti- 
nent of rivers and mountains and lakes. It was that great belief that 
lifted you all up into the heroic height of great soldiers in the war, and 
it is that belief that you cherish to-day, and carry with you in all your 
pilgrimages and in all your reunions. In that great belief, and in that 
inspiring faith, I meet you and greet you to-day, and with it we will go 
on to whatever fate has in store for us all. 

"I thank you, comrades, for this demonstration of your faith and con- 
fidence and regard for me. Why, gentlemen, this home of mine will 
never be the same place again. I am disposed to think tliat a man does 
not take every thing away fi'om a place when he takes his body away. It 
was said that long after the death of the first Napoleon, his soldiers be- 
lieved that on certain anniversary days he came out and reviewed all his 
dead troops, he himself being dead ; that he had a midnight review of 
those that had fought and fallen under his leadership. That, doubtless, 
was a fiction of the imagination ; but I shall have to believe in all time 
hereafter the character and spirit and impressions of my comrades live on 
this turf, and under these trees, and in this portal ; and it will be a part 
of ray comradeship in all days to come." 

On the 28th of the month a deloo^ation of Portage County citi- 
zens, two hundred strong, headed by Judge T.utlu'r Day, of Ka- 
venna, visited Mentor, and paid the customary respects to him who 



^ 470 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

was now regarded as well nigh certain to carry away the greatest 
honor known to the American people. After the company was 
formally introduced by Judge Day, the General, in resjjonse, said : 

" Judge Day, Ladies a)id Gentlemen: I once read of a man Avho tried to 
wear the armor and Avield the sword of some ancient ancestor, but found 
them too large for his stature and strength. If I should try at this mo- 
ment to wear and sway the memories which your presence awakens, I 
should be overwhelmed, and wholly unable to marshal and master the 
quick-coming throng of memories which this semicircle of old friends 
and neighbors has brought to me. Here are school-fellows of twenty- 
eight years ago. Here are men and women who were my pupils a quarter 
of a century ago. Here are venerable men who, twenty one years ago, 
in the town of Kent, launched me upon the stormy sea of political life. 
I see others who were soldiers in the old regiment which I had the honor 
to command, and could I listen to the teaching and thoughtful words of 
my friend, the venerable late Chief Justice of Ohio, who has just spoken, 
without remembering that evening in 1861, of which he spoke too mod- 
estly, when he and I stood together in the old church at Hiram, and 
called upon the young men to go forth to battle for the Union, and be en- 
listed before they slept, and thus laid the foundation of the 'Forty-second 
Regiment? How can I forget all these things, and all that has followed? 
How can I forget that twenty-five years of my life were so braided and 
intertwined with the lives of tho people of Portage County, when I see 
men and women from all its townships standing at my door? I can not 
forget these things while life and conciousness remain. No other period 
of my life can be lil^e this. The freshness of youth, the very springtide 
of life, the brightening on toward noonday — all were with you and of 
you, my neighbors, my friends, my cherished comrades, in all tlie relations 
of social, student, military and political life and friendship. You are here, 
so close to my heart that I can not trust myself to an attempt to marshal 
these memories with any thing like coherence. To know tliat my neigh- 
bors and friends in Portage County, since the first day of my Congres- 
sional life, have never sent to any convention a delegate who was hostile 
to me ; that through all the storm of detraction that roared around me, 
the members of the old guard of Portage County have never wavered in 
their faith and friendship, but have stood an unbroken phalanx with their 
locked shields above my head, and have given me their hearts in every 



CANDIDATE FOE THE TRESIDENCY.— THE MOREY LETTER 471 >x 

contest. If a man can cany in liis memory a jewel more precious than 
this, I am sure Judge Day has never heard what it is. 

"Well, gentlemen, on the eve of great events, closing a great cam- 
paign, I look into your faces and draw from you such consolation as even 
you can not understand. Whatever the event may be, our post is secure, 
and whatever may befall me hereafter, if I can succeed in keeping the 
hearts of Portage County near to me I shall know that I do not go far 
wrong in any thing, for they are men who love the truth for truth'.s sake, 
far more than they love any man. 

" Ladies and gentlemen, all the doors of my house are open to you. The 
hand of every member of my family is outstretched to you. Our hearts 
greet you, and Ave ask you to come in." • 

In the meantime there had occurred the most remarkable episode 
of the campaign. On the 21st of October appeared in the columns 
of a New York newspaper called Truth, a letter purporting to have 
been written on the 23d of January, 1880, to one H. L. Morey, 
of Lynn, Massachusetts. The communication was ostensibly a 
reply to a letter written to General Garfield with the purpose of 
obtaining his views on the great question of the Chinese in the United 
States, and more particularly to extract his ideas on the subject of 
Chinese cheap labor. This previous supposititious letter of Morey 
was never produced, but only the alleged answer of General Gar- 
field, which was as follows: 

"House of Representatives, "1 
Washington, D. C, January 23, 1880. / 

"Dear Sir: Yours in relation to the Chinese problem came iluly to 
hand. I take it that the question of employes is only a question of ]irivatc 
and corporate economy. Individuals or companies have the right to buy 
labor where they can get it the cheapest. We have a treaty with the 
Chinese Government, which should be religiously kept until its provisions 
are abrogated by the action of the General Government, and I a in nut 
prepared to say that it should be abrogated until our great manufacturnig 
interests are conserved in the matter of labor. 

Very truly yours, 

"J. A. Gariikld. 

"To H. L. Morey, Employers' Union, Lynn, Mass." 

It was instantly manifested, on the appearance of thi.- httcr. 



472 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 



Ch-^ ^ -^-i^t^ 






r^^C^Sa^^ 








FAC-SIMILE OF THE MOBEY LETTER. 





CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY.— GARFIELD'S DENIAL. 473 

MENTOR. omo. 0^->5<;A- *^ c3, / ^^' 

'^/ieU^.y^^.^t^^ ytc/y. ^:^c^, (E^f^u- — <i?ZL 


















PAC-SIMILE OF OARFIRLI* I-VrTTER OF nF.NIAI 




y 474 ^ LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

that its almost certain effect M-oiild be to lose General Garfield the 
electoral votes of the Pacific States; for the settled sentiment of 
those States against Chinese immigration and the consequent com- 
petition of that people with American free labor, was known to be 
so pronounced as to make it sure that no party discipline could 
hold them in allegiance to a candidate who squinted at fiivoring the 
Celestials. There was instant alarm among the General's friends, 
but their fears were quickly quieted by the prompt action of Gar- 
field himself, who immediately sent to Hon. Marshall Jewell, 
Chairman of the Republican National Committee, the following 

dispatch : 

" Mentok, O., October 22, 1880. 

" To Hon. M. Jewell and Hon. S. W. D.orseij: 

"I will not break the rule I have adopted by making a public reply to 
campaign lies, but I authorize you to denounce the so-called Morey letter 
as a bold forgery, both in its language and sentimeut. Until its publica- 
tion I never heard of the existence of the Employers' Union of Lynn, 
Massachusetts, nor of such a person as H. L. Morey. 

"J. A. Garfield." 

The mails of the same day brought to General Garfield a copy 
of the Truth newspaper, containing a lithographic fac-simile of his 
alleo;ed letter, and to this he made immediate answer as follows: 

Mentor, O., October 23, 1880. 
" To Hon. Marshall JeiceU: 

"Your telegram of this afternoon is received. Publish my dispatch of 
last evening, if you think best. Within the last hour the mail has brought 
me a lithographic copy of the forged letter. It is the work of some 
clumsy villain who can not spell nor write English, nor imitate my hand- 
writing. Every honest and manly Democrat in America, who is familiar 
with my handwriting, will denounce the forgery at sight. Put the case 
in the hands of the ablest detectives at once, and hunt the rascal do^vn. 

"J. A. Garfield." 

The question of veracity w^as thus broadly opened between 
General Garfield and the mythical Morey and his backers. It did 
not take the American people long to decide between them. 
Except in the columns of extreme and reckless partisan news- 



CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY.-TIIE CONSPIRACY. 475 ^ 

papers and in the mouths of irresponsible demagogues, the matter 
was laid forever to rest. To convince the people that James A. 
Garfield was a liar was an up-hill work. The Kepuhlicans simply 
said that the Morey letter was an outrageous fraud, a forged 
expedient, a last resort to stay a lost cause. 
It was clearly and indubitably shown — 

1. That no such person as H. L. Morey lived at or near Lynn, 
Massachusetts, at the time when the alleged Garfield letter was 
written. 

2. That no such association as the supposed Morey pretended to 
represent, ever existed in Lynn. 

3. The fac-simile of the letter printed in the columns of Truth 
showed, on close examination, all the internal evidences of forgerv. 
It was a coarse and easily detected counterfeit of the General's 
handwriting and signature, and contained, among other palpable 
absurdities, the word "companies," spelled companys — a blunder 
utterly at variance with General Garfield's scholarship and careful 
literary habit. 

4. The fact that the sentiments of the letter were in broad and 
palpable contradiction of Garfield's letter of acceptance and other 
public utterances on the Chinese question. 

5. General Garfield's positive and unreserved denial of author- 
ship. 

This put the abettors of the Morey business on the defensive, 
and they squirmed not a little. They said that Morey was dead; 
which was a necessary thing to sav. Thev declared themselves 
innocent of all complicity. The letter had come into their hands 
in the regular way. They believed it to be true, etc. But all these 
allegations combined would not suffice to stay the inevitable 
reaction; for say what you will, do not the American people believe 
in fair play? 

According to General Garfield's expressed desire, the Morey case 
was carried to the courts. A certain Kenward Philj), a c()ntril)ul<)r 
to Truth, was charged with the forgery and arrested. 

The grand jury in General Sessions ])rcsented an indieiment 
against Joseph Hart, Louis A, Post, Kenward Pbilp ami ( "liarlcs A. 



)( 476 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

Bryne for publishing iu the newspaper Truth a criminal libel on 
General Garfield. 

A long trial followed in the court of Oyer and Terminer, of 
Kew York. The suit was at first directed against the editors of 
Truth, and Philp was thus unearthed. As the trial progressed, 
although the evidence was conclusive as to Philp's authority of the 
forgery, yet every circumstance tended to show unmistakably that 
the whole affair had been a cunning conspiracy of some prodigious 
scoundrel to injure General Garfield's chances for the Presidency. 

The production of the letter and its envelope in Court 
betrayed at once the tampering to which the latter had been sub- 
jected, and settled the character of the disgraceful political 
maneuver which had given it birth. The alleged forger proved 
to be an English Bohemian, who contributed to the "story papers," 
and who confessedly wrote the editorial articles defending the 
genuineness of the letter in the under-ground journal which first 
published it. The register of the Kirtland House, at Lynn, Mas- 
sachusetts, was produced by the defense, and the«name "H. L. 
Morey" was shown there in October, 1879, and again in February 
of 1880. But there was the most circumstantial evidence that the 
name had been recently written on each page of the register. The 
name had, undoubtedly, been added to the hotel register in each 
instance by some one who was anxious to bolster up the fraud. 

The discovery was made that the envelope containing the forged 
letter had originally been addressed to some one else than H. L. 
Morey; and an enlarged photographic copy of the envelope 
revealed the fact that the original name was Edward or Edwin Fox 
or Cox, in care of some company in the city of New York. And 
in the next place it was shown that Edward Fox was employed 
upon the Truth! 

The prosecution failed to convict the publishers of the Truth of 
criminal libel ; but the country rendered again the old Scotch verdict 
of "Guilty — but not proven." The Presidential election, however, 
was imminent, and it is not improbable that General Garfield's 
vote on the Pacific Slope was injured by the base machinations of 
the Morey consjiirators. 



CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY.— ELECTED. 477 

On the 2d of November was held the Presidential election. 
The result had been foreseen. The Democracy could not stem 
the tide. The " Solid South," the unfortunate plank in their 
platform declaring in favor of " a tariff for revenue only," and 
the Morcy forgery which had been charged up to their account, 
wrought their ruin. Garfield was overwhelmingly elected. The 
morning of the 3d revealed the general outline of the result. 
For a few days it was claimed by the Republicans that they had 
carried two or three of the Southern States, but this idea was 
soon dispelled. In a like unprofitable way the Democrats set up 
certain and sundry claims for some of the Northern States. One 
day they had carried New York ; another day they had authentic 
information that California and Oregon were safe for Hancock. 
It was all in vain. The South all went Democratic, and all of 
the Northern States, except Nevada and one electoral vote from 
California, had been secured by the Ilepublicans. The victory 
was unequivocal. The humble boy of Mother Garfield was elect- 
ed President of the United States by 214 electoral votes against 
155 for his antagonist, General Hancock. Tlius, under the be- 
nign institutions of our country, was conferred upon one who 
began his life in a log cabin the highest civic honor known 
among the nations of the earth. 

General Garfield spent election day at home without manifest 
excitement. In the evening, and later in the night, news began 
to arrive indicative of the result. Still no agitation. To some 
friends he said : " I have been busying myself with a calculation 
to determine the rate of voting to-day. During the hours in 
which the election has been in progress about 2000 ballots have 
dropped for every tick of the pendulum." With the morning 
light there was no longer doubt. The title of General, won on 
the bloody field of Chickamauga, had given place to that of 
President-elect, won before the grandest bar of j)ublic opinion 
under the circle of the sun. 

On the day succeeding the election, the first delegation bearing 
congratulations visited Mentor. It was composed of the Obcrlin 
College faculty and students, headed by President Fairehild, and 



478 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

the occasion was one of more than usual interest. In reply to 
the speech of introduction, General Garfield said : 

"3/r. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: This spontaneous visit is 
so much more agreeable than a prepared one. It conies more directly 
from the heart of the people who participate, and I receive it as a 
greater compliment for that reason. I do not wish to be unduly im- 
pressible or superstitious, but, though we have outlived the days of the 
augurs, I think we have a right to think of some events as omens; and 
I greet this as a happy and auspicious omen, that the first general greet- 
ing since the event of yesterday is tendered to me by a venerable insti- 
tution of learning. The thought has been abroad in the world a good 
deal, and with reason, that there is a divorce between scholarshij? and 
politics. Oberlin, I believe, has never advocated that divorce. But 
there has been a sort of cloistered scholarship in the United States 
that has stood aloof from active participation in public affairs, and I am 
glad to be greeted here to-day by the active, live scholarship of Ohio; 
and I know of no place where scholarship has touched upon the nerve 
center of the public so effectually as Oberlin. For this reason I am 
specially grateful for this greeting from the Faculty and students of 
Oberlin College and its venerable and venerated President. I thank 
you, ladies and gentlemen, for this visit. Whatever the significance of 
yesterday's event may be, it will be all the more significant f)r being 
immediately indorsed by the sclujlarship and culture of my State. I 
thank you, ladies and gentlemen, and thank your President for coming 
with you. You are cordially welcome." 

On the 6th of November the Republican Central Committee 
of Indiana repaired to Mentor and paid their respects to the 
coming Chief Magistrate ; and on the 12th of the month the Pres- 
ident, soon-to-be, was visited by the Republican Central Com- 
mittee of Cuyahoga County. In answer to their salutation he 
said : 

^^ Gentlemen: I have been saying a good many things during the past 
few weeks, and think I should be nearly through talking by this time. 
I should be the listener. But I can not refrain from saying that I am 
exceedingly glad to meet with you, a company of Republicans from my 
native county, and congratulate you upon what you have done. You 



CANDIDATE FOR THE rEESIDEXCY.— THE OUIO ELECTORS. 470 ^ 

have shown your strength and character in your W(jrk. You have 
shown that you are men of high convictions and ohserve them in all 
that you do. I have always taken pride in this county and in the city 
of Cleveland. The Forest City is well worthy to he the capital of the 
Western Reserve. It has the credit of our country at heart, never 
losing sight of it in the heat of politcal warfare. In no city in the 
country can be found more active and earnest men — solid business men. 
It is an honor to any one to have the confidence of such a people. I 
am glad to be here this evening to greet you and thank you for your 
kind invitation." [Applause.] 

Garfield had now more offices in prospect or actual possession 
than usually fall to the lot of one man. He was still a mcniLer 
of the House of Representatives in the Forty-sixth Congress ; he 
was also United States Senator-elect for the State of Ohio ; and, 
thirdly, he was President-elect of the United States. On the 10th 
of November, being perhaps content with the Presidency, he re- 
signed his seats in the House and Senate, and thus for about four 
months became Citizen Garfield, of Ohio. 

The 2d of December was rather a Rcd-lcttcr day at Mentor. 
The Presidential electors for the State of Ohio, on that day called 
on the President-elect and tendered their best regards. In answer 
to their congratulations he spoke with much animation and feel- 
ing as follows: 

"Gentlemen: 1 am deeply grateful to you for this call, and for those 
personal and public congratulations. If I were to look upon the late 
campaign and its result merely in the light of a personal struggle and a 
personal success, it would probably be as gratifying as any thing could 
be in the history of politics. If my own conduct during the campaign 
has been in any way a help and a strength to our cause, I am glad. It 
is not always an easy thing to behave well. If, under trying circum- 
stances, my behavior as a candidate has met your approval, I aTu greatly 
gratlHed. But the larger subject — your congratulations to the country 
on the triumph of the Republican party— opens a theme too vast for me 
to enter upon now. 

" I venture, however, to mention a reflection which has occurred to 
me in reference to the election of yesterday. I suppose that no political 



480 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

event has happened in all the course of the contest since the early spring, 
which caused so little excitement, and, indeed, so little public observa- 
tion, as the Presidential election which was held yesterday at midday. 
The American people paid but little attention to the details of the real 
Presidential election, and for a very significant reason: although you 
and all the members of the Electoral Colleges had absolute constitu- 
tional and technical right to vote for any body you chose, and although 
no written law directed or suggested your choice, yet every American 
knew that the august sovereign of this Republic — the 9,000,000 of vot- 
ers — on an early day in November had pronounced the omnipotent fiat 
of choice; and that sovereign, assuming as done that which he had or- 
dered to be done, entertained no doubt but that his will would be im- 
plicitly obeyed by all the Colleges in all the States. That is the reason 
why the people were so serenely quiet yesterday. They had never 
yet found an American who failed to keep his trust as a Presidential 
Elector. 

" From this thought I draw this lesson : that when that omnipotent 
sovereign, the American people, speaks to any one man and orders him 
to do a duty, that man is under the most solemn obligations of obedience 
which can be conceived, except what the God of the universe might 
impose upon him. Yesterday, through your votes, and the votes of 
others in the various States of the Union, it is probable (the returns 
will show) that our great political sovereign has laid his commands upon 
me. If he has done so, I am as bound by his will and his great inspi- 
ration and purpose as I could be bound by any consideration that this 
earth can impose upon any human being. In that presence, therefore, I 
stand and am awed by the majesty and authority of such a command. 

" In so far as I can interpret the best aspirations and purposes of our 
auo:ust sovereign, I shall seek to realize them. You and I, and those 
who have acted with us in the years past, believe that our sovereign 
loves liberty, and desires for all inhabitants of the Republic peace and 
prosperity under the sway of just and equal laws. Gentlemen, I thank 
you for this visit ; for this welcome ; for the suggestions that your pres- 
ence and your words bring, and for the hope that you have expressed, 
that in the arduous and great work before us we may maintain the 
standard of Nationality and promote all that is good and worthy in this 
country, and during the coming four years we may raise just as large a 
crop of peace, prosperity, justice, liberty, and culture as it is possible 
for forty-nine millions of people to raise." 



CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY.— CAROLINA DELEGATION. 481 

At" the close of the address there was a general hand-shaking 
d la Americaine ; and then to add to the interest of the occasion 
the President's aged mother, to whom more than ever of late his 
heart had turned with loyal devotion, was led into the apartment 
and presented to the distinguished guests by her more distin- 
guished son. 

Two days afterwards there was another assembly of visitors at 
Mentor. This time it was a delegation of colored Republicans — 
Black Republicans in both senses of the word — from South Car- 
olina, headed by the negro orator, R. B. Elliott, who delivered 
the congratulatory address. In answer, the President-elect^ said: 

'^General Elliott and Gentlemen: I thank you for your congratulations 
on the successful termination of the great campaign that recently closed, 
aud especially for your kind allusion to me personally for the part I bore 
in that campaign. 

"What I have done, what I have said concerning your race and the 
'great problem that your presence on this continent has raised, I have 
said as a matter of profound conviction, and hold to with all the meaning 
of the words employed in expressing it. What you have said in regard 
to the situation of your people, the troubles that they encountered, the 
evils from which they have suffered and still suffer, I listened. to with 
deep attention, and shall give it full measure of reflection. 

" This is not the time nor the place for me to indicate any thing as to 
what I shall have to say and do, by and by, in an official way. But 
this I may say : I noted as peculiarly significant one sentence in the re- 
marks of General Elliott, to the effect that the majority of citizens, as he 
alleges, in some portions of the South, are oppressed by the minority. 
If this be so, why is it so? Because a trained man is two or three men 
in one, in comparison with an untrained man; and outside of politics 
and outside of parties, that suggestion is full, brim-full, of significance, 
that the way to make the majority always powerful over the minority, is 
to make its members as trained and intelligent as the minority itself. 
That brings the equality of citizenship ; and no law can confer and main- 
tain in the long run a thing that is not upheld with a reasonable degree 
of culture and intelligence. Legislation ought to do all it can. I have 
made these suggestions simply to indicate that the education of your race, 
in mv judgment, lies at the biuse of the final solution of your great ques- 
31 



i82' LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

tion ; and that can not be altogether in the hands of the State or National 
Government. The Government ought to do all it properly can, but the 
native hungering and thirsting for knowledge that the Creator planted in 
every child, must be cultivated by the parents of those children to the 
last possible degree of their ability, so that the hands of the people shall 
reach out and grasp in the darkness the hand of the Government ex- 
tended to help, and by that union of effort bring what mere legislation 
alone can not immediately bring. 

"I rejoice that you have expressed so strongly and earnestly your 
views in regard to the necessity of your education. I have felt for years 
that that was the final solution. 

"Those efforts that are humble and comparatively out of sight are, in 
the long run, the efforts that tell. I have sometimes thought that the 
men that sink a coffer-dam into the river, and work for months in an- 
choring great stones to build the solid abutments and piers, whose work 
is by and by hidden by the water and out of sight, do not get their share 
of the credit. The gaudy structure of the bridge that rests on these 
piers, and across which the trains thunder, is the thing that strikes the 
eye of the general public a great deal more than the sunken piers and 
hard work. The educational growth and the building up of industry, 
the economy and all that can help the foundations of real prosperity is 
the work that, in the long run, tells. Some Scotch poet said, or put it 
in the fnouth of some prophet to say, that the time would come ' when 
Bertram's right and Bertram's might shall meet on Ellengowan's height,' 
and it is Avhen the might and the right of a people meet that major- 
ities are never oppressed by minorities. Trusting, gentlemen, that you 
may take part in this earnest work of building up your race from the 
foundation into the solidity of intelligence and industry, and upon those 
bases at last see all your rights recognized, is my personal wish and hope 
for your people." 

About this time in November, the weather closed in stormy 
and cold, and, fortunately for Garfield, the tide of visitors ebbed, 
and he found a little rest. Late in the month, he made a brief 
visit to Washington, where he spent a few days among his friends 
and political advisers. After that, he returned to Mentor, and 
during December his life was passed in comparative quiet at his 
home. 



CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY.— OFF FOR WASHINGTON. 483 

No doubt in these December days the vision of his boyhood 
rose many times to view. No doubt, in the silence of the winter 
evening, by his glowing hearth at Lawnticld, with the wife of his 
youth by his side and the children of their love around them, and 
the certain Presidency of the Republic just beyond, he realized in 
as full measure as falls to the lot of man that strange thing which 
is called success. 

The New Year came in. The bleak January — bitter cold — 
went by. On the 16th of February, the distinguished Senator 
Conkling, of New York, made a visit to the President-elect. In 
the imagination of the political busy-bodies the event was fraught 
with great consequences. It was said that the haughty stalwart 
leader was on a mission looking to the construction of the new 
administration, to seek favor for his friends, and to pledge therefor 
the support — hitherto somewhat doubted — of himself and his par- 
tisans. The interview was named the " Treaty of Mentor ;" but 
the likelihood is that the treaty consisted of no more than distin- 
guished civilities and informal discussion of the 'personnel of the 
new Cabinet, etc. A few days later the President-elect made his 
departure for Washington to be inaugurated. The special train 
which was to bear himself and family away, left Mentor on the 
28th of February. Fully three thousand people were gathered at 
the depot. Cheer after cheer was given in honor of him who had 
made the name of Mentor for ever famous. A forewell speech was 
delivered by Hon. A. L. Tinker, of Painesville, and to this the 
Chief Magistrate responded thus : 

"Felloiv-citizeiis ami neighbors of Lake Countij: I thank you for the 
cordial and kindly greeting and farewell. You have come from your 
homes than which no happier are known in this country, from thi.s hoaii- 
tiful lakeside full of tluit which makes country life hai)py, to give me 
your ble.ssing and fiirewell. You do not know how much I leave l)cliind 
me of friendship, and confidence, and home-like happiness; but I know 
I am indebted to this whole people for acts of kindness, of neigh l)orly 
friend.ship, of political cf.nfidence, of public support, that few men liavc 
ever enjoyed at the hands of any people. You arc a part of tliis gn-at 
community of Northern Ohio, which, for so many years, have had no 



>C 484- LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

political desire but the good of your country ; and now wisliing but the 
promotion of liberty and justice, have had no scheme but the building 
up of all that was worthy and true in our Republic. If I were to search 
over all the world I could not find a better model of political spirit, of 
aspirations for the truth and the right, than I have found in this com- 
munity during the eighteen years its people have honored me with their 
confidence. I thank the citizens of this county for their kindness, and 
especially my neighbors of Mentor, who have demanded so little of me, 
and have done so much to make my home a refuge and a joy. What 
awaits me I can not now speak of, but I shall carry to the discharge of 
the duties that lie before me, to the problems and dangers I may meet, 
a sense of your confidence and your love, which will always be answered 
by my gratitude. Neighbors, friends, and constituents, farewell." [Great 
applause.] 

Promptly at 1 P. M. the train moved off, and the crowd dis- 
persed. At Ashtabula, that famous old seat of abolitionism, the 
President-elect was called out by the chorus of cheers, and, in 
answer, said : 

^' Citizem of Ashtabula: I greatly thank you for this greeting. I can 
not forget the tree that was planted so many years ago, and its planting 
so far watched and assisted by the people of Ashtabula County. It has 
grown to be a great tree. Its branches cover the whole Republic, and 
its leaves and fruit are liberty to all men. That is a Avork for the citi- 
zens of Ashtabula County to be proud of to the latest generation. If I, 
as your representative, have helped on the cause you so much have at 
heart, I am glad; and if in the future I can help to confirm and 
^, strengthen what you have done so much to build ; if I can help to garner 
the harvest that you have helped to plant,- 1 shall feel that I have done 
something toward discharging the debt of gratitude which I owe for 
your confidence and love. I thank you, fellow-citizens, for this farewell 
greeting, and I bid you good-bye." [Great cheering.] 

All along the route, as far as Altoona, Pennsylvania, where 
night overtook the train, the scene at Ashtabula was renewed, the 
President-elect responding pleasantly to the many greetings of the 
people. 

We are now come to the last scene in the progress of James A. 



CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENCY.-OFF FOR WASHINGTON. 485 

Garfield from the obscurity of a backwoods home to the high scat 
of the Presidency. Wonderful career ! Magnificent development 
of American manhood and citizenship! The train carrying the 
President-elect reached Washington on the evening of the 29th 
of February. By the courtesy of Mrs. President Hayes the Gar- 
field family was taken at once to the White House. A press note, 
speaking of the arrival, said : 

" The General looks travel-tired and weary, although the excitement 
keeps him well stimulated, having something of the effect of rich-living. 
He says that when once his Cabinet is settled, and he begins home-life 
at the White House, he will have a comparative freedom from worry. 
He does not sleep excellently well. Probably no man ever did while 
engaged in making up a Cabinet." 

Here, then, we say. Good-night; but think of To-morrow! 



486 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 



CHAPTER XII. 

IN THE HIGH SEAT. 

THE morning of March 4, 1881, dawned — if such days may be 
said to dawn at all — dark and gloomy. The snow, which 
had been falling and melting into a very uncomfortable slush 
for days before, still continued. The " weather clerk " proph- 
esied more snow and rain ; and altogether the promise of this 
day was not good to the unnumbered thousands of American 
citizens who had come to Washington to see Garfield inaugu- 
rated. 

It was a great disappointment, especially in consideration of 
the fact that preparations had been made on a grander scale 
than at any time for many years. A fresh impulse was thus 
given to the talk which is sometimes indulged about changing 
the date of Inauguration Day to May 4th. 

ISTevertheless, fair weather or foul, blue sky or gray, the new 
administration must begin. Shortly before eleven o'clock the 
military escort of the President and President-elect moved up 
Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House to the Capitol. 
It was one of the finest military displays ever seen in Wash- 
ington. Pennsylvania Avenue was lined with a vast multitude, 
whose continual cheers made a sound which could be heard 
afar, like the undying voices of the ocean waves. 

President Hayes and President-elect Garfield rode in an open 
barouche, drawn by four horses. The First Cleveland Troop, 
splendidly equipped and drilled, marched before, as a guard 
of honor. Garfield looked weary. He remarked during the 
morning that the preceding week had been the most trying of 
his life. The effect of sleepless nights and deep anxiety was 
plainly visible on his countenance. Thus, with one of the four 



V 



r r/ 

IN THE HIGH SEAT.— DLSTIXGriSHED SPECTATORS. 487 

grand divisions of the immense procession as his immediate 
escort, heartily cheered all along the line, at half-past eleven 
the new President reached the Capitol. 

Meanwhile the Senate Chamber and galleries had been rap- 
idly filling with a distinguished throng. The center of attrac- 
tion was in the front seat in the gallery, opposite the Vice-Presi- 
dent's desk, where sat the President-elect's mother and wife 
and Mrs. Hayes. The venerable woman who sat at the head 
of the seat was regarded \vith interest by the whole audience, 
as she looked down upon the scene in which her son was the 
most conspicuous figure, with a quiet expression of joy that 
was very delightful to behohL Next to her sat Mrs. Hayes. 
Mrs. Garfield sat at her right, and was dressed very quietly. 
The three ladies chatted together constantly, and the eldest 
set the other two laughing more than once by her quaint re- 
marks on the proceedings in the chamber below them. 

The Senators and Senators-elect were all seated on the left 
side of the chamber, and the prominent members of the body 
were eagerly watched by the spectators. Among them were 
David Davis and Roscoe Conklino; ene:a2:ed in earnest conver- 
sation. Near these two sat Thurman and Hamlin, two able Sen- 
ators whose last day in the Senate had come. The venerable 
Hamlin was evidently in a meditative mood as the last minutes 
of his long official life passed by, and was not inclined to be 
talkative. Thurman brought out the familiar snuft-box, took 
his last pinch of Senatorial snuff, and flung the traditional 
bandana handkerchief once more to the breeze. 

Soon General Winfield S. Hancock, late Democratic candi- 
date for the Presidency, came in, accompanied h}^ Senator 
Blaine. Hancock was dressed in Major-General's full uniform, 
looking in splendid condition, and conducted himself in a 
manly, modest fashion, which called forth warm api>lauso, and 
commanded the respect of all spectators. Phil Sberidan was 
heartily welcomed when he came in soon after and took his 
seat by Hancock's side. 

After these, the Dipb^matic Corps entered, presenting a brill- 



i 488 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

iant appearance; and following them soon came the Judges of 
the Supreme Court, Then the Cabinet appeared, and immedi- 
ately the President and President-elect. Vice-President-elect 
Arthur came last, and was presented to the Senate by Vice- 
President Wheeler. He spoke a few quiet, appreciative words 
in that elegant way he has of doing things, and then took the 
oath of office, after which, exactly at twelve — the Senate clock 
having been turned back five minutes — the Forty-Sixth Con- 
gress was adjourned w^ithout day. 

The center of interest was now transferred to the east 
front of the Capitol, wdiither, as soon as the new Senators had 
been sworn in, the procession of distinguished people in the 
Chamber took up the line of march. 

A great platform had been erected in front of the building, 
and the sight presented from it w^as a most striking one, for 
rods and rods in front and to either side were massed thousands 
upon thousands of spectators wedged in one solid mass, so that 
nothing but their heads could be seen. It was indeed 

ONE GREAT SEA OF FACES, 

all uplifted in eager expectancy. In the center of the platform, 
at the front, was a little space raised a few inches above the 
level of the rest, upon which stood several chairs, the most no- 
ticeable being a homely and antique one, which tradition, if not 
history, says was occupied by Washington at his first inaugura- 
tion, and which has certainly been used for many years on such 
occasions. 

In this chair Mr. Garfield took his seat for a few minutes 
when he arrived, the others being occupied by President Hayes, 
Vice-President Arthur, Mr. Wheeler, Chief-Justice Waite, 
and Senators Pendleton, Bayard, and Anthony. The elder 
and younger Mrs. Garfield, Mrs. Hayes, and^ one or two other 
ladies, were also given seats here. At about a quarter of one 
o'clock General Garfield arose from the historic chair, and took 
from his pocket a roll of manuscript, tied at the corner with 



IN THE HIGH SEAT.— THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 489 

blue ribbon. Being introduced by Senator Pendleton, he pro- 
ceeded to deliver the Inaugural Address. 

"Fellow-Citizens — We stand to-day upon an eminence which over- 
looks a hundred years of national life, a century crowded witli perils, but 
Clowned with triumphs of liberty and love. Before continuing the on- 
ward march let us pause on this height for a moment to strengthen our 
faith and renew our hope by a glance at the pathway along which our 
people have traveled. 

"It is now three days more than a hundred years since the adoption 
of the first written Constitution of the United St:\tes, the Articles of Con- 
federation and Perpetual Union. The new Republic was then beset with 
danger on every hand. It had not conquered a place m the family of 
Nations. The decisive battle of the war for independence, Avhose cen- 
tennial anniversary will soon be gratefully celebrated at Yorktown, had 
not yet been fought. The colonists were struggling, not only against the 
armies of Great Britain, but against the settled opinions of mankind, for 
the world did not believe that the supreme autliority of government 
could be safely intrusted to the guardianship of the people tliemselves. 
We can not overestimate the fervent love, the intelligent courage, the 
saving common sense with which our fathers made the great experiment 
of self-government. 

"When they found, after a short time, that the Confederacy of States 
was too weak to meet the necessities of a glorious and expanding Repub- 
lic, they boldly set it aside, and in its stead established a National Union, 
founded directly upon the will of the people, endowed with powers of 
self-preservation, and with ample authority for the accomphshmeut of its 
great objects. 

" Under this Constitution the boundaries of freedom are enlarged, the 
foundations of order and peace have been strengthened, and the growth 
in all the better elements of National life have vindicated the wisdom of 
the founders and given new hope to their descendants. 

" Under this Constitution our people long ago made themselves .safe 
against danger from without, and secured for their mariners and flag 
equality of rights on all the seas. Under this Constitution twenty-five 
States have been added to the Union, with constitutions and laws framed 
•and enforced by their own citizens to secure the manifold l)lessings of 
local and self-government. 

"The jurisdiction of this Constitution now covers an area fifty times 



% s; « 

490 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

greater than that of the origiual thirteen states, and a population twenty 
times greater than that of 1780. The trial of the Constitution came at 
last under the tremendous pressure of civil war. 

"We ourselves are witnesses that the Union emerged from the blood 
and fire of that conflict, purified and made stronger for all the beneficent 
purposes of good government, and now at the close of this, the first cen- 
tury of growth, with the inspirations of its history in their hearts, our 
people have lately reviewed the condition of the Nation, passed judgment 
upon the conduct and opinions of the political parties, and have registered 
their will concerning the future administration of the Government. To 
interpret and to execute that will in accordance with the Constitution is 
the paramount duty of the Executive. Even from this brief review it is 
manifest that the Nation is resolutely facing to the front, a resolution to 
employ its best energies in developing the great possibilities of the future. 
Sacredly preserving whatever has been gained to liberty and good gov- 
ernment during the century, our people are determined to leave behind 
them all those bitter controversies concerning things which have been ir- 
revocably settled, further discussion of which can only stir up strife and 
delay the onward march. The supremacy of the Nation and its laws 
should be no longer the subject of debate. That discussion, which for 
half a century threatened the existence of the Union, was closed at last 
in the high court of war by a decree from which there is no appeal : 
that the Constitution and the laws made in pursuance thereof shall con- 
tinue to be the supreme law of the land, binding alike on the States and 
the people. This decree does not disturb the autonomy of the States, nor 
interfere with any of their necessary rules of local self-government, but 
it does fix and establish the permanent sujiremacy of the Union. 

" The will of the Nation, speaking with the voice of battle and through 
the amended Constitution, has fulfilled the great promise of 1776 by pro- 
claiming * Liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof.' 

" The elevation of the negro race from slavery to full rights of citizen- 
ship, is the most important political change we have known since the adop- 
tion of the Constitution of 1776. 

" No thoughtful man can fail to appreciate its beneficent eflfect upon 
our people. It has freed us from the perpetual danger of war and dis- 
solution ; it has added immensely to the moral and industrial forces of 
our people ; it has liberated the master as well as the slave from a rela- * 
tion which wronged and enfeebled both. 



IN THE PIIGH SEAT.— THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 491 

" It has surrendered to their own guardianship the manhood of more 
than five millions of people, and has opened to each of them a career 
of freedom and usefulness. It has given new inspiration to the power 
of self-help in both races by making labor more honorable to one and 
more necessary to the other. 

" The influence of this force will grow greater and bear richer fruit 
with coming years. No doubt the great change has caused serious dis- 
turbance to the Southern community— this is to be deplored, though it 
was unavoidable ; but those who resisted the change should remember 
that in our institutions there was no middle ground for the negro race 
between slavery and equal citizenship. There can be no permanent dis- 
franchised peasantry in the United States. Freedom can never yield its 
fullness of blessing as long as law or its administration places the smallest 
obstacle in the pathway of any virtuous citizenship. 

"The emancipated race has already made remarkable progress. AVith 
unquestionable devotion to the Union, with a patience and gentleness not 
born of fear, ' they have followed the light as God gave them to see the 
light.' 

"They are rapidly laying the material foundation for self-support, 
widening their circle of intelligence, and begiiming to enjoy the bless- 
ings that gather around the homes of the industrious poor. They de- 
serve the generous encouragement of all good men. 

"So far as my authority can lawfully extend, they shall enjoy full and 
equal protection of the Constitution and laws. The free enjoyment of 
equal sufiiage is still in question, and a frank statement of the issue may 
aid its solution. 

"It is alleged that in many communities negro citizens are practically 
denied freedom of the l)allot. In so far as the trutli of this allegation is 
admitted, it is answered that in many places honest local government is 
impossible if the mass of uneducated negroes are allowed to vote. These 
are grave allegations. 

" So far as the latter is true, it is no palliation that can be offered for 
opposing the freedom of the ballot. Bad local government is certainly a 
great evil which ought to be prevented, but to violate the freedom a iwl 
sanctity of suffrage is more than an evil, it is a crime, which, if persisted 
in, will destroy the Government itself Suicide is not a remedy. 

" If in other lands it be high treason to compass the death of a knig, 
it should be counted no less a crime here to strangle our sovereign power 



492 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

and stifle its voice. It has been said that unsettled questions have no 
pity for the repose of nations. It should be said, with the utmost em- 
phasis, that this question of suffrage will never give repose or safety to 
the States or to the Nation, until each, within its own jurisdiction, makes 
and keeps the ballot free and pure by strong sanctions of laAv. 

" But the danger which arises from ignorance in voters can not be de- 
nied. It covers a field tar wider than that of negro suffrage and the 
present condition of that race. It is a danger that lurks and hides in the 
sources and fountains of power in every State. We have no standard by 
which to measure the disaster that may be brought upon us by ignorance 
and vice in citizens when joined to corruption and fraud in suffrage. The 
voters of the Union, who make and unmake constitutions, and upon whose 
will hangs the destiny of our government, can transmit their supreme 
authority to no successor save the coming generation of voters, who are 
the sole heirs of sovereign power. If that generation comes to its inherit- 
ance blinded by ignorance and corrupted by vice, the fall of the Eepublic 
will be certain and remediless. The census has already sounded the alarm 
in appalling figures, which mark how dangerously high the tide of illiter- 
acy has arisen among our voters and their children. To the South the 
question is of supreme importance, but the responsibility for its existence 
and for slavery does not rest upon the South alone. 

" The Nation itself is responsible for the extension of suffrage, and is 
under special obligations to aid in removing the illiteracy which it has 
added to the voting population. For North and South alike there is but 
one remedy : All the Constitutional power of the Nation and of the States, 
and all the volunteer forces of the people, should be summoned to meet 
this danger by the saving influence of universal education. It is the 
high privilege and sacred duty of those now living to educate their suc- 
cessors, and fit them, by intelligence and virtue, for the inheritance which 
awaits them. In this beneficent work section and race .should be forgot- 
ten, and partisanship should be unknown. Let our people find a new 
meaning in the divine oracle which declares that * a little child shall lead 
them,' for our little children will soon control the destinies of the Eepublic. 

" My countrymen, we do not now differ in our judgment concerning the 
controversies of the past generations, and fifty years hence our children 
will not be divided in their opinions concerning our controversies; they 
will surely bless their fathers — and their fathers' God — that the Union 
was preserved ; that slavery was overthrown, and that both races were 



IN THE HIGH SEAT.— THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 493 

made equal before the law. We may hasten on, wc may retard, but we 
can not prevent the final reconciliation. 

** Is it not possible for us now to make a truce with time by anticipat- 
ing and accepting its inevitable verdict? Enterprises of the highest im- 
portance to our moral and material well-being invite us, and offer amjile 
scope for the enjoyment of our best powers. 

" Let all our people, leaving behind them the battle-fields of dead issues, 
move forward, and in the strength of liberty and restored union win the 
grandest victories of peace. The prosperity which now prevails is with- 
out parallel iji our history. Fruitful seasons have done much to secure 
it, but they have not done all. 

" The preservation of public credit and the resumption of specie pay- 
ments, so successfully obtained by the administration of my predecessors, 
have eualiled our people to secure the blessings which the seasons brought. 

" By the experience of commercial relations in all ages it has been 
found that gold and silver afforded the only safe foundation for a mone- 
tary system. Confusion has recently been created by variations m the 
relative value of the two metals ; but I confidently believe that arrange- 
ments can be made between the leading commercial nations which will 
secure the general use of both metals. Congress should provide that the 
compulsory coinage of silver, now required by law, may not disturb our 
monetary system by driving either metal out of circulation. 

"If possible, such adjustment should be made that the purchasing 
power of every coined dollar will be exactly equal to its debt-paying 
power in all the markets of the world. The chief duty of a National 
Government, in connection with the currency of the country, is to com 
and declare its value. Grave doubts have been entertained whether 
Congress is authorized by the Constitution to make any form of paper 
money legal-tender. 

"The present issue of United States notes has been sustained by the 
necessities of war; but such paper should depend f»»r its value and cur- 
rency upon its convenience in use and its prompt redemption in coin at 
the will of the holder, and not upon its compulsory circulation. These 
notes are not money, but promises to pay money. If the holders de- 
mand it, the })romises should be kept. The refunding of the National 
debt at a low rate of interest sliould be accomplished withdut compelling 
the withdrawal of National bank notes, and thus disturbing the business 
of the country. 



494 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

" I venture to refer to the position I have occupied on the financial 
question during a long service in Congress, and to say that time and ex- 
perience have strengthened the opinions I have so often expressed on 
these subjects. The finances of the Government shall suffer no detriment 
which it may be possible for my administration to prevent. 

" The interests of agriculture deserve more attention from the Gov- 
ernment than they have yet received. The farms of the United States 
afford homes and employment for more than one-half of our people, and 
furnish much the largest part of all our exjiorts. As the Government 
lights our coasts for the protection of the mariners and the benefit of our 
commerce, so it should give to the tiUers of the soil the lights of practical 
science and experience. 

" Our manufacturers are rapidly making us industrially independent, 
and are opening to capital and labor, new and profitable fields of employ- 
ment. This steady and healthy growth should still be maintained. Our 
facilities for transportation should be promoted by the continued improve- 
ment of our harbors and the great interior water-ways and by the increase 
of our tonnage on the ocean. 

" The development of the world's commerce has led to an urgent de- 
mand for a shortening of the great sea voyage around Cape Horn by con- 
structing ship-canals or railways across the Isthmus which unites the 
two continents. Various plans to this end have been suggested and will 
need consideration, but none of them have been sufficiently matured to 
warrant the United States in extending pecuniary aid. 

" The subject is one which will immediately engage the attention of the 
Government with a view to a thorough protection of American interests. 
We will argue no narrow policy, nor seek peculiar or exclusive privileges 
in any commercial route; but, in the language of my predecessors, I 
believe it to be ' the right and duty of the United States to assert and 
maintain such supervision and authority over any inter-oceanic canal 
across the Isthmus that connects North and South America as will pro- 
tect our National interests.' 

"The Constitution guarantees absolute religious freedom. Congress is 
prohibited from making any laws respecting the establishment of religion 
or prohibiting free exercise thereof. 

" The Territories of the United States are subject to the direct legis- 
lative authority of Congress, and hence the General Government is re- 
sponsible for any violation of the Constitution in any of them. It is, 



IN THE HIGH SEAT.— THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 495 

therefore, a reproach to the Government that in the most populous of 
the Territories this constitutional guarantee is not enjoyed by the people, 
and the authority of Congress is set at naught. The Mormon Church 
not only offends the moral sense of mankind by sanctioning polygamy, 
but prevents the administration of justice through the ordinary instru- 
mentalities of the law. 

" lu my judgment it is the duty of Congress, while respecting to the 
utmost the conscientious convictions and religious scruples of every citi- 
zen, to prohibit within its jurisdiction all criminal practices, especially 
of that class which destroy family relations and endanger social urder. 
Nor can any ecclesiastical organization be safely permitted to usurp in 
the smallest degree the functions and powers of the National Government. 

"The Civil Service can never be placed on a satisfactory basis until it 
is regulated by law, for the good of the service itself For the protection 
of those who are intrusted with the appointing power against a waste of 
time and obstruction of public business, caused by the inordinate pressure 
for place, and for the protection of incumbents against intrigue and 
wrong, I shall, at the proper time, ask Congress to fix the tenure of 
minor offices of the several Executive Departments, and proscribe the 
grounds upon which removals shall be made during the terms for which 
the incumbents have been appointed. 

"Finally, acting always within the authority and limitations of the 
Constitution, invading neither the rights of States nor the reserved riglits 
of the people, it will be the purpose of my administration to maintain 
the authority, and in all places within its jurisdiction, to enforce obedi- 
ence to all laws of the Union ; in the interests of the people, to demand 
rigid economy in all the expenditures of the Government, and to require 
honest and fiiithful service of all executive officers, remembering that 
offices were created not for the benefit of the incumbents or their sup- 
porters, but for the service of the Government. 

"And now, fellow-citizens, I am about to assume the great trust which 
you have committed to my hands. I appeal to you for that earnest and 
thoughtful support which makes this Government in fact, as it is in law, 
a government of the people. I shall greatly rely upon the wisdom and 
patriotism of Congress and of those who may share with me the res|x)n- 
sibilities and duties of the administration, and upon our efforts to pro- 
mote the welfare of this great people and their Government I reverently 
invoke the support and blessing of Almighty God. 



496 



LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 



The address was delivered in a deliberate, forcible maimer. The 
President's appearance was dignified, and even imposing. That 
splendid voice, with its magnetic power and fine tone, captivated 
his admiring audience, who listened patiently throughout the entire 

thirty-five minutes. At 
its close Garfield turned 
toward the Chief Justice 
who advanced and ad- 
ministered the oath of 
office, the Clerk of the 
Supreme Court holding 
a beautifully-bound Bi- 
ble, upon which the oath 
Mas taken. Then oc- 
curred as impressive an 
episode as was ever seen 
in official life. After the 
new President had been 
congratulated by ex- 
Presidcnt Hayes and 
Chief Justice Waite, Avho 




stood next to him, he 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



turned around, took his 
aged mother by the hand 
and kissed her. The old 
lady's cup of happiness at this moment seemed full and running 
over. It is quite safe to say that nobody, not even Garfield him- 
self, felt more enjoyment at the spectacle of his elevation than this 
woman whose mind ranged from the days of his obscure and pov- 
erty-stricken boyhood to his present elevation, and nobody wit- 
nessed the sight but rejoiced at her happiness. Mrs. Eliza Gar- 
field is the first example of a President's mother having a home in 
the White House. And it was a pleasure to the people to know 
that special arrangements had been made there for her accommo- 
dation. 

Garfield next kissed his wife, then shook hands with Mrs. 



IN THE HIGH SEAT.— CONGRATULATIONS. 



407 



Hayes, and speedily found the grasp of his hand sought by every 
body within reach, from Vice-President down through Congress- 
men to the unknown strangers who coidd nuinage to push within 
reaching distance. • 

Meanwhile the ele- 
ments had begun to 
modify their rigors. 
The bright sunlight 
breaking through the 
clouds, was reflected 
from the snow, and nat- 
ure seemed less cheer- 
less. At last, the Presi- 
dential party, jostled a 
good deal on the way, 
returned through the 
rotunda to the Senate 
wing of the Capitol, and 
prepared for the ride to 
the White House. Tak- 
ing their place near the 
head of the procession, 
they passed up to the 
other end of the Ave- 
nue, receiving on the 
way the applause of the multitude. President Garfield and party 
then took position on a stand erected for the purpose in front of 
a building near the Avenue, and from this point reviewed the 
procession, which filed past for two full hours. There were over 
15,000 men in line, and the whole number of spectators was doubt- 
less over 100,000. 

Immediately after review of the procession, President Garfield 
received the Williams College Association, of Washington, with 
visiting Alumni to the number of fifty, in the East Room of the 
Executive Mansion. Rev. Mark Hopkins, cx-i)resident of the 
college, eloquently presented the congratulations of the Alumni. 
32 




Wri.LIAM WINDOM. 



498 



LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



President Garfield made an appropriate response, in which he 
exhibited considerable emotion. Afterward the Alumni were pre- 
sented to the mother and wife of the President. Twenty members 
of President Garfield's class were among the Alumni present. 

The festivi- 
ties of March 
fourth ended 
at night with 
a magnificent 
display of fire- 
works, a great 
inaugural ball 
in the Museum 
building, and 
numerous re- 
ceptions at the 
houses of the 
most distin- 
guished resi- 
dents at the 
Capital. 

On the fifth 
of March, 
President 
Garfield sent 
to the Senate, 
then in extra 
session, a list 
of nomina- 
tions for his Cabinet. These were unanimously confirmed. They 
were : Secretary of State, James G. Blaine, of Maine ; Secretary 
of the Treasuiy, William Windom, of Minnesota ; Secretary of 
Wai-, Robert T. Lincoln, of Illinois; Secretary of the Navy, Wm. 
H. Hunt, of Louisiana ; Secretary of the Interior, S. J. Kirkwood, 
of Iowa; Attorney-General, Wayne MacVeagh, of Pennsylvania; 
Postmaster-General, Thomas L. James, of New York. 




KOJiKltT T. LINCOLN. 



IN THE HIGH SEAT.— THE CABINET. 



499 



This proved an admirable selection. Its components arc men 
who stand well with the country, and whose services in other 
positions had given sufficient evidence of honesty and capacity' to 
recommend them to the American people. And it involved no 
antagonistic elements. 

Again, this new Cab- 
inet did not take its bias 
from any strong political 
element. It was not a 
Grant - Conkling selec- 
tion ; nor even a Blaine 
Cabinet. It was a Garfield 
Cabinet, in which the 
President was unmistak- 
ably the central figure 
and the center of power. 

James G. Blaine, 
Secretary of State, w^as 
leader of the group. His 
prominent position in 
his party and before the 
country made his nomi- 
nation generally accept- 
able, and his long and 

intimate acquaintance with affairs of state gave liim the requisite 
experience. Undoubtedly, Blaine is one of the most magnificently 
endowed men, in intellectual power, now in public life. 

Secretary Windom had a difficult place to fill in following John 
Sherman as Secretary of the Treasury. Sherman had heartily rec- 
ommended AVindom for the place, and he w'as probably the best 
choice that could have been made. He had been an anti-tliird 
term man, of course, but was very friendly with such Stalwarts as 
Conkling and Arthur, and was thus a good factor in an adminis- 
tration which did not want to antagonize these men, although not 
yielding to them. 

The nomination of Robert T. Lincoln was very largely the result 







WILLIAM H. HUNT. 



500 



LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 



of sentiment — but a very good sentiment. He had been a respect- 
able lawyer, who attended carefully to his business, and, under 
trying circumstances, had conducted himself with discretion. It 
happened that he was a favorite of Senator Logan, and that 

President Garfield de- 



<"r-_- 




sired to make his Cab- 
inet agreeable to the 
Senator; also, that 
young Lincoln had 
been, according to his 
opportunities, a Third- 
termer, and it was the 
desire of the President 
to conciliate the Third- 
termers, so far as it 
could be done without 
giving his policy an 
unwarranted slant ; and 
it happened also that 
§^ General Garfield, as we 
have seen from his ad- 
dresses years previous 
to this time, held the 
memory of Abraham 
Lincoln in the deepest reverence, and felt a solicitude to make 
his own elevation to the Presidency honor that memory. Under 
these circumstances, and from these considerations, the appoint- 
ment of Mr. Robert T. Lincoln to be Secretary of War came nat- 
urally about. 

Hunt was appointed to represent the South. 
Kirkwood was a man whom Garfield had long held in high 
esteem, and was familiar with public business. 

Wayne MacVeagh, though brother-in-law to Don Cameron, did 
not belong to the Cameron political clan. He was chosen as a 
Republican of independent proclivities, and a lawyer of whose 
ability there could be no question. 



^^^ 



DR. D. HAYES AGNEW. 



IN THE HIGH SEAT.— ADDRESS TO TE:MPEEANCE LADIES. 501 



Mr. James, Postmaster of New York City, was appointed Post- 
master-General for purely business reasons, and because he was 
not only believed to be the best man for the place, but was one 
of the few first-class public men in New York not fully commit- 
ted to one or the 
other of the per- 
sonal or political 
factions of Re- 
publicans in that 
State. 

Thus Garfield 
tried, and with a 
degree of success, 
to appoint a Cab- 
i n e t wh ic h 
should not give 
any one cause for 
organizing an 
opposition to the 
Administration. 
He certainly had 
the good will of 
all Pepublicans, 
and even his po- 
litical enemies 
conceded that he 
started out under 
bright auspices. 

The country itself was prosperous, and the most far-sighted men 
joined the unreflecting multitude in ])redictions oi' :i liappy, 
uneventful administration of four years, under the peaceful rule 
of a popular President. 

Four days after his inauguration, a company of fifty ladies, 
members of the National Woman's Christian Temperajiec Tnion, 
called at the White House to present a jiortrait of ]\rrs. Lucy Webb 
Hayes, just completed by Mr. Huntington. It will be lemembered 




\\ AYNK MACVEAGH. 



602 



LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



that Mrs. Hayes had won the approval of many good people by 
declining to put wine on the table at the White House. These 
ladies now desired to impress on the new incumbents the desirabil- 
ity of continuing that policy. In responding to the presentation 

speech, President Gar- 
field received the por- 
trait, and referred to the 
temperance question 
thus: 



" Nothing I can say ■will 
be equal to my high appre- 
ciation of the character of 
the lady whose picture is 
now added to the treasures 
of this place. She is noble, 
the friend of all good peo- 
ple. Her portrait will take, 
and I hope will always 
hold in this house, an hon- 
ored place. I have ob- 
served the significance 
which you have given to 
this portrait from the 
stand-point you occupy, 
and in connection with the work in which you are engaged. First, 
I approve most heartily what you have said in reference to the 
freedom of individual judgment and action, symbolized in this 
portrait. There are several sovereignties in this country. First, 
the sovereignty of the American people, then the sovereignty nearest 
to us all — the sovereignty of the family - the absolute right of each 
family to control its affairs in accordance with the conscience and con- 
victions of duty of the heads of the family. In the picture before us 
that is bravely symbolized. I have no doubt the American people 
will always tenderly regard their household sovereignty, and however 
households may differ in their views and convictions, I believe that those 
differences will be respected. Each household, by following its own 
convictions, and holding itself responsible to God, wiU, I think, be re- 




THOMAS L. JAMES. 



IN THE HIGH SEAT.— THE STALWARTS. 503 

spected by the American people. What you have said concerning the 
evils of intemperance, meets my most liearty concurrence. 1 liuve been, 
in my way, and in accordance with my own convictions, an earnest advo- 
cate of temperance, not in so narrow a sense as some, but in a very 
definite and practical sense. These convictions are deep, and will be 
maintained. Whether I shall be able to meet the views of all people in 
regard to all the phases of that question remains to be seen, l)uL I shall 
do what I can to abate the great evils of intemperance. I shall be glad 
to have the picture upon these walls ; I shall be glad to remember your 
kind expressions to me and my family ; and in your efforts to better mankind 
by your work, I hope you will be guided by wisdom and that you will 
achieve a worthy success." 

President Hayes bad left the new administration a heritage of 
hatred from the stalwart element of the Republican party. It 
was President Garfield's chief wish, politically, to heal up the chasm 
wdiich the past had opened, and not to recognize one faction more 
than another. Notwithstanding these purposes, the deadly breach 
which had yawned apart during the Hayes administration, was 
an ominous thing. The defeat of the Stalwarts at Chicago, by 
Garfield, naturally tended to transfer their hostility from the out- 
going to the incoming President. For months before the inau- 
guration, the embarrassment which threatened Garfield was fi)re- 
secn by the country. On the one hand were the men who had 
nominated him in the Chicago Convention, — men who, risking every 
political prospect, rebelled from the command of tlieir leaders, such 
as Conkling, Cameron, and Logan, and defeated Grant. To such, 
Garfield owed his nomination. On the other hand was llie stal- 
wart clement, still bruised and sore from the defeat at Chicago. 
Yet they had entered heartily into the campaign. Tliey h;i(l .-wal- 
lowed their chagrin, and outwardly, if not inwardly, submitted 
with good grace to their defeat, and wheeled into line of battle for 
the fall election. To these men, Garfield was largely indebted for 
his election. In his administration, how could he recognize cither 
one of these elements without arousing the antagonism of the 
other? This was the riddle which he must solve. 

The breach between the two Avas as deadly as ever. The Cabi- 



504 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

net was a compromise, but the Grant men were afraid of it, with 
Blaine so near the throne. 

For a few days after the inauguration, the surface of the sea 
was tolerably smooth ; but acute political mariners prophesied 
rough weather. The two wings of the party in New York were 
waiting to fly at each other's throats at the first opportunity. The 
balance of power between the two elements was the official patron- 
age of the President. Into whose lap the plum was thrown, to that 
wing belonged the ascendancy. 

Senator Conkling's chief political purpose was to chastise the 
men who had deserted liis standard at Chicago. This he could 
best accomplish by controlling the Federal patronage himself; 
but failing in that, his next object Avas to cause the patronage 
to be distributed to neutrals, thereby preventing it from becoming 
an element at all in the fight. 

Senators Conkling, Logan, and Cameron, as well as Sherman 
and Blaine, were visitors at the White House, and left in pleasant 
humor. In the eyes of the country it seemed plain that Conkling 
had made the disposition of the New York patronage the price of 
his frienship to the new administration. Every body was on tip- 
toe to see what the President would do. On March 22d, he sent 
to the Senate, for confirmation, the names of Stewart L. Woodford, 
to be United States Attorney for the Southern District of New 
York, and Asa W. Tcnney, for the Eastern District; Lewis F. 
Payne, to be United States Marshal, for the Southern, and Clin- 
ton D. McDougall, for the Northern District of New York, and 
John Tyler, to be Collector of Customs at Buffalo. 

This move was interpreted by the country to mean a great 
victory for Conkling, and that the New York patronage was con- 
trolled by him. Other nominations, in Conkling's supposed inter- 
est, were those of James in the Cabinet, and Morton, Minister to 
France. 

But on the following day, President Garfield nominated, for 
Collector of the port of New York, William H. Robertson. 
In New York, and more or less throughout the country, 
this was a great surprise. But it was not an objectionable 



IN THE HIGH SEAT.— NOMINATION OF ROBERTSON. 505 

nomination. Then it was Robertson who headed the break in 
the i^ew York delegation at Chicago. He had risked much; 
he had been very largely instrumental in nominating G-arfield. 
Gratitude is a noble quality of human nature, and the Pres- 
ident was a man of generous motives and impulses. Tiie 
general expression from the country upon the Robertson nom- 
ination was one of approval. To disinterested people, far away 
from the heat and dust of the battle, it was, coupled with 
the nominations of the preceding day, plainly a declaration 
of an intention to recognize each branch of the party in 
!N"ew York. Weaker men would have recognized neither, 
giving the offices to neutrals, and pleasing nobody. Mere 
partisan men would have recognized one faction only. Gar- 
field tried to recognize both. A deeper significance also lay 
in the Robertson nomination. Whether Garfield meant it or 
not, it was, in a sense, a declaration of independence. Gar- 
field, with his lion-like courage, his intellectual powers, his 
moral greatness, could not, in fact or in appearance, allow 
his administration to be manipulated by outside influence. 
It was said that Mr. Blaine was the author of the Robertson 
nomination; that it was his revenge on Conkling. Garfield 
said repeatedly, even on the bed of pain, that it was his own 
in every sense, and that Blaine had not known that it was 
intended to be made. 

Whatever President Garfield intended by the nomination 
of Robertson, Senator Conkling treated it as a declaration of 
war. In their views of what followed, men will diftcr. It is 
not for these pages, penned so soon in the darkness of an awful 
assassination, to do more than relate the facts, though it is 
impossible for a biographer of the dead to do other than 
sympathize with him. Senator Conkling said that Hayes bad 
never done a thing so terrible. He said that the nomination 
of Robertson, the most objectionable man possible— without 
consultation with the Senators from Xew Yc^rk, or without 
their being informed of the intention to makt' a ehaiige in 
the most important ofiice in the State, was a grievous personal 



506 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

and political wrong. He said that the long dispute as to 
whether a small faction of Yew York Eepublicans, or four- 
lifths of the party in the State, as represented by him, were 
to be treated by the Administration as the Republican party 
of New York, had at last to be settled finally and forever. 

The situation was one of intense interest. Popular opinion 
supported the President, though not a few took the side of 
Conkling. The latter, together with Piatt, the junior New 
York Senator, resolved to fight the confirmation of Robert- 
son. They believed that, with the Senate evenly balanced, 
they could, with the help of the Democrats, prevent Robert- 
son's confirmation. It was a battle of giants. Men won- 
dered whether, when war was declared, Garfield would strike 
back or not. The Stalwarts offered only one way of compro- 
mise — the withdrawal of Robertson's nomination. But the 
President was firm. Efforts were made to induce Robertson 
to ask the President to withdraw his name in the interest 
of harmony. But he scouted the idea. The State Senate of 
New York, of which Robertson was the presiding officer, 
passed a resolution in support of the Administration. On be- 
half of the President's action it was claimed, that it was his 
constitutional right to nominate; that the New York Sena- 
tors overstepped their prerogative in attacking his action; 
that the office of Collector of the Port was a national office, 
and not rightfully a part of the local patronage; that the 
Executive should select the man through whose hands passed 
nine-tenths of the tariff" revenues of the country. 

There had been a dead-lock of the Senate over the nomina- 
tion of its officers, and this still continued, and the President 
was, in consequence, embarrassed by the failure to act on any 
of his nominations. It began to be thought that this delay, 
covered by the pretense of securing Mahone, of Virginia, to 
the Republicans, was really a scheme to prevent any action 
on the President's nominations. 

Meanwhile, the administration had to deal with problems 
more important to the country than the Robertson nomination. 



IN THE HLGII SEAT— GRAND FINANCIAL SCHEME. 507 

Two hundred millions of six per cent, bonds were shortly to 
become redeemable. It was every way desirable that the 
bonds should be redeemed and the rate of interest on tiie 
public debt reduced. To issue bonds under the existing laws, 
in order to raise money to redeem the six per cents., would 
require the new bonds to be issued at four per cent, for thirty 
years, or four and a half per cent, for twenty years. These 
rates of interest were too high, and the time for the bonds 
to run too long. In case the Government acquired the means 
to pay them off before they were due, still the interest would 
keep running. There were grave objections to calling an extra 
session of Congress. Garfield and the country were afraid 
of the unsettling influence of our national legislature. Early 
in his Congressional career, Garfield had said, "if the laws 
of God were as vacillating as the laws of this country, tlie 
universe would be reduced to chaos in a single day." Above 
all things, the business of the country demanded a rest from 
congressional tinkering. 

When powerful, and it was thought overwhelming influ- 
ences pressed upon President Garfield the policy of an extra 
session of Congress, he sent to the Secretary of the Treasury 
a call for full information as to the powers he had under 
existing laws. It was a wise conclusion that it might be 
easier to hunt up old laws than to have new ones made. 
Whatever the old laws permitted was certain, but a fresh 
Congress is uncertain, especially on finance. 

The Secretary found that there was no law to prevent the 
Government from using its credit and business foresight in 
handling and refunding its indebtedness. The plan which 
President Garfield and ^Secretary Windom evolved was abso- 
lutely original and proved to be the highest statesmanship. 
Garfield was at home on questions of finance. 

A circular was issued to the holders of the six per cents., 
saying that after the following July 1st, interest would cease, 
and the bonds be redeemed as fiist as presented. If. liow- 
ever, the holders preferred to retain the bonds, and receive 



508 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

three and a half per cent., at the pleasure of the Government, 
they could do so. 

As the event showed, hardly any bonds were presented for 
redemption. And without any legislation the interest on that 
portion of the public debt was reduced from six to three and 
a half per cent., and all that without the expense of a new 
issue of bonds, or the disadvantage of a debt not maturing 
till long after the Government would probably be ready to 
pay it. This financial feat attracted the attention of European 
States, and was pronounced one of the most masterly financial 
schemes of history. 

While the Senate was still at a dead-lock over the offices 
of Secretary and Sergeant-at-Arms, and the Robertson quarrel 
grew blacker and blacker, President Garfield and his cabinet 
found time to commence an investigation of the alleged 
gigantic frauds in the post-office department. It promised to 
engulf and destroy some of the best workers of the Repub- 
lican party, but the President, in spite of terrific pressure, and 
in spite of the battle raging over the Robertson matter, set 
his face like brass against all corruption. The Star Route 
contracts, though they may not fall within reach of the law, 
were of the following character: In lonely mountain districts 
of the West, where a mail for miner's camps would be needed 
about once in two weeks, a contract would be let for carry- 
ing the mail at say <^500 a trip, making the cost for tlie line 
for the year about $13,000. Then, under pretense of the need 
of more mails on account of the development of the West, 
Congress would be induced to order a daily instead of a bi- 
weekly mail. By this "expediting," the contractor was en- 
abled, under the old rate of $500 per trip, to make $150,000 
a year out of the line. Many times the mail bags in these 
" expedited " routes are said to have been empty as they were 
carried through the mountains. Postmaster-General Janies 
and Attorney-General MacVeagh were the principal prose- 
cutors of the investigation. 

Meanwhile, the storm raged with ever-growing fierceness 



IN THE HIGH SEAT.— A CHECKMATE. 509 

around the President. The RepubUcan Senatorial caucus scut 
committee after committee to him to induce the withdrawal 
of Robertson's name. He was subjected to every possible 
pressure and influence, but Grant himself never held a po- 
sition with greater firmness. Conkling, however, proposed 
and carried through the Republican caucus the following 
plan, by which the dead-lock was to be broken temporarily, 
allowing the Senate to go into executive session : All nomina- 
tions that were not oj>posed by one Senator from the nominee's State 
were first to be acted upon. The rest could take care of them- 
selves. This admitted about every one except Robertson to 
the consideration of the Senate. The plan was popularly sup- 
posed to mean the confirmation of all unopposed nominations, 
including those of Senator Conkling's friends, and then either 
an adjournment sine die, or a breaking of the quorum, by 
absentees, so as to prevent any action on Robertson's name 
till December. This would be a victory for the New York 
Senator. 

But the President, though possessing too much self-respect to make 
this a personal controversy, was yet brave and strategic. Shortly 
after the Senate went into executive session, the President's private 
secretary arrived with a message which fell like a thunder-bolt on 
that body. The message withdrew the nominations of Senator Conk- 
ling's friends. It was a checkmate. The plan of the caucus was 
foiled. President Garfield assigned as his reason simply that the 
discrimination which was attempted, in acting on all the nomina- 
tions from the Stalwart element and refusing to act on the solitary 
representative of the opposite element, was wrong and unfair. lie 
said that the President's duty was to nominate, and that the Sen- 
ate's sworn duty was to confirm or reject. To refuse to do cither 
was surpassing their prerogative. To show how consistent the 
President was in this struggle, with views held long years before he 
ever thought of the Presidency, we insert an cxtrnct from an ar- 
ticle by him on "A Century of Congress," in the Atlantic Monthly, 
for July, 1877: 



510 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

CONGRESS AND THE EXECUTIVE. 

" In the main, the balance of powers so admirably adjusted and dis- 
tributed among the three great departments of the Government have 
been safely preserved. It was the purpose of our fathers to lodge abso- 
lute power now^iere ; to leave each department independent within Its 
own sphere, yet, in every case, responsible for the exercise of its discre- 
tion. But some dangerous iunovations have been made. 

"And first, the appointing power of the President has been seriously 
encroached upon by Congress, or rather by the members of Congress. 
Curiously enough, this encroachment originated in the act of the Chief 
Executive himself. The fierce popular hatred of the Federal party, 
which resulted in the elevation of Jefierson to the Presidency, led that 
officer to set the first example of removing men from office on account of 
political opinions. For political causes alone he removed a considerable 
number of officers who had recently been appointed by President Adams, 
and thus set the pernicious example. His immediate successors made only a 
few removals for political reasons. But Jackson made his political op- 
ponents who were in office feel the full weight of his executive hand. 
From that time forward the civil offices of the Government became the 
prizes for which political parties strove; and, twenty-five years ago, the 
corrupting doctrine that 'to the victors belong the spoils' was shame- 
lessly announced as an article of political faith and practice. It is hardly 
possible to state Avith adequate force the noxious influence of this doc- 
trine. It was bad enough when the Federal officers numbered no more 
than eight or ten thousand ; but now% when the growth of the country 
and the great increase in the number of public offices occasioned by the 
late war, have swelled the civil list to more than eighty thousand, and 
to the ordinary motives for political strife this vast patronage is offered 
as a reward to the victorious party, the magnitude of the evil can hardly 
be measured. The public mind has, by degrees, drifted into an accept- 
ance of this doctrine ; and thus an election has become a fierce, selfish 
struggle between the ' ins 'and the"' outs,' the one striving to keep and the 
other to gain the prize of office. It is not possible for any President to 
select, with any degree of intelligence, so vast an army of office-holders 
without the aid of men who are acquainted with the people of the vari- 
ous sections of the country. And thus it has become the habit of Presi- 
dents to make most of their appointments on the recommendation of 
members of Congress. During the last twenty-five years, it has been un- 



IN THE HIGH SEAT.— ABUSES OF THE CIVIL SERVICE. ol 1 

derstood, by the Congress and the people, that offices are to be obtained 
by the aid of Senators and Representatives, who thus become the dis- 
pensers, sometimes the brokei'S, of patronage. The members of State 
lesrislatures who choose a senator, and the district electors who choose a 
representative, look to the man of their clioice for appointments to office. 
Thus, from the President downward, through all the grades of official 
authority, to the electors themselves, civil office becomes a vast corrupt- 
ing power, to be used in running the machine of party politics. 

"This evil has been greatly aggravated by the passage of the Tenure 
of Office Act, of 1867, whose object was to restrain President Johnson 
from making removals for political cause. But it has virtually resulted 
in the usurpaticm, by* the Senate, of a large share of the appointing 
power. The President can remove no officer without the consent of the 
Senate ; and such consent is not often given, unless the appointment of 
the successor nominated to fill the proposed vacancy is agreeable to the 
Senator in whose State the appointee resides. Thus it has happened 
that a policy inaugurated by an early President has resulted in seri- 
ously crippling the just powers of the Executive, and has placed in the 
hands of Senators and Representatives a power most corrupting and 
dangerous. 

"Not the least serious evil resulting from this invasion of the Execu- 
tive functions "!iy members of Congress is the fact that it greatly impairs 
their own usefulness as legislators. One-third of tlic working hours of 
Senators and Representatives is hardly sufficient to meet the demands 
made upon them in reference to appointments to office. To sum up in a 
word : the present system invades the independence of the Executive, 
and makes him less responsible for the character of hLs appointment.^; it 
impairs the efficiency of the legislator by diverting him from Ids proper 
sphere of duty and involving him in the intrigues of aspirants for office; 
it degrades the civil service itself by destroying the personal independence 
of those who are appointed; it repels from the service those high and 
manly qualities which are so necessary to a pure and efficient admuus- 
tration; and, finally, it debauches the public mind by holding uj> public 
office as the reward of mere party zeal. 

"To reform this service is one of the highest and most imperative 
duties of statesmansliip. This reform can not be accomplished without a 
complete divorce between Congress and the Executive in the matter of 
appointments. It will be a proud day when an Administration Senator or 



512 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

Representative, who is in good standing in his party, can say, as Thomas 
Hughes said, during his recent visit to this country, that though he was 
on the most intimate terms ^yith the members of his own administration, 
yet it was not in his power to secure the removal of the humblest clerk 
in the civil service of liis government." 

It is easy to see the principle which lay behind the nomination 
of Robertson independently of the New York Senators, and the 
demand that it should be acted upon by the Senate. It is idle 
to say that Mr. Blaine or any other man made the-President his 
tool. President Garfield's policy was the logical outgrowth of his 
opinions, and it was he who, opinions and all, was elected by the 
people. 

The withdrawal of the other nominations, it was conceded, de- 
feated the New York Senators. The country watched the situa- 
tion with interest, if not anxiety. The next move of Conkling 
was anxiously expected. It came. 

On May 16, 1881, Vice-President Arthur handed the Reading 
Clerk a little sheet of note-paper containing these words : 

Washington, May 16, 188L 
Sii-: Will you please announce to the Senate that my resigiftition as Senator 

of the United States from the State of New York lias been forwarded to the 

Governor of the State. 

I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant, 

EOSCOE CONKXING. 

To Hon. C. A. Arthub. 

He read it in the monotonous sing-song, uninflected way of 
which he is master, but before he had finished all eyes were upon 
him, and all ears were opened to receive the announcement. 
Astonishment sat on every face. Each man looked to his neigh- 
bor in questioning wonder. A murmur of surprised comment 
crept around the chamber. Then some incredulous Senators de- 
manded a second reading of the momentous missive. Once more 
the clerk chanted its contents, while the incredulous ones, con- 
vinced against their will, drank in the simple statement of the 
startling fact. Then the Vice-President handed the clerk another 
note of like tenor, running thus : 



IN THE HIGH SEAT.— EOBERTSOX CONFIRMED. 513 

Senate CnAMBEit, May 16, 1881. 

Sii-: I have forwarded to the Governor of the State of New York my resigna- 
tion as Senator of the United States for the State of New York. Will you please 
announce the fact to the Senate? 

With great respect, your obedient servant, T. C. Platt. 

To Hon. C. A. Akthur. 

This was read amid the increasing hum of astonishment in the 
galleries and on the floor. Mr. Hill, of Georgia, had the cruelty 
to suggest that the officers ought now to be elected. Then ^Ir. 
Burnside, endeavoring very hard to look as though nothiug 
unusual had occurred, rose nervously and presented the report of 
the Foreign Affairs Committee, recommending the adoption of 
the Morgan-Monroe Doctrine resolution, which he gave notice he 
would call up to-morrow. His carefully prepared report was road, 
but nobody paid the slightest attention to it. All were absorbed 
in the consideration of the step taken by Conkling, its meaning, 
and its probable effect. 

Three davs after, AVilliam H. Robertson was confirmed Collector 
of the Port of New York, with scarcely a dissenting voice. 

No more exciting and stormy experience ever fell to the lot of 
any Administration than that which marked the first seventy-five 
days of Garfield's. The first days in the Presidential chair are 
full enough of embarrassment without a tremendous struggle with 
a powerful element of the incumbent's own party. A new Presi- 
dent feels that fifty millions of people are watching him critically. 
From the privacy of the citizen's life, the new President passes 
into the most glaring sunlight. He is surrounded by hundreds of 
detectives and spies, and subjected to the most impudent scrutiny. 
Things which all his life have been sacredly private, the sweet 
affections of the fireside, care for parents, anxious consultations 
with the wife, training of the children, all suddenly become i)ul.- 
lic property. The number of coats he wears, the size of ids hat, 
the purchase of a new pair of gloves, the dresses of his wif.-, a 
walk or drive, attendance at church, all those things are spread 
before the eyes of the world in the most exaggerated and distorted 

form. 

33 



514 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

If a member of the Cabinet calls and remains in private con- 
sultation for two hours, the President is said to be the cat's-paw 
of secretary so-and-so. If the same secretary calls again and re- 
mains but five minutes, it is reported that a disagreement has 
occurred, and the said secretary's resignation will be demanded. 
If the President, worn out and disgusted with the besetments of 
office-seekers and the malignant attacks on his character, slips 
away from the cares of State for a day or two, he is said not to be 
earning his salary. If he does not take up with every whispered 
scandal, and call upon Congress for a committee of investigation, 
he is openly charged with corruption and a disposition to cover up 
frauds. If, on the other hand, he does ask for an investigation, he 
is said to be using his official power to injure his enemies. The 
strain, the worry, the insults, the outrages, the scrutiny, the mis- 
construction, which a new President has to undergo are enough 
for one human heart to bear. Add to this such an unparalleled 
battle as that into which Garfield was forced almost from his in- 
auo-uration day, and one would think the burden hard to increase. 

But this was not all he had to endure. In the midst of the 
storm, his wife, from whom he had so long drawn consolation 
and support, was stricken down with the most malignant form of 
typhoid fever. Dr. Boynton, her home physician, was hastily 
summoned from Ohio. But the suffi^rer grew worse. This was a 
calamity which no courage, no calm conservatism, no intellectual 
resources, no popular support, could remedy. Up to this time the 
President had kept heart bravely, but the mighty shadow which 
seemed about to darken his life forever, was too much for his 
great, loving soul. Hurrying away from the crowded office of 
State, he sought the suffi^rer, sat by her side hour after hour, 
denying himself necessary sleep, and nursed her with the most 
devoted care. Every day the papers told of the critical condition 
of the President's wife, and it seemed that her death was an as- 
sured and grievous calamity. The. people's hearts swelled with 
sympathy for the suffering husband. Day after day the story of his 
silent watching at the bedside of the wife brought tears unbidden 
to the eye. But the calamity which seemed impending was turned 



IN THE HIGH SEAT.-BRIGHT DAYS. 515 

aside. On the 20th of May, Dr. Boynton announced a slight 
change for the better, M'hich proved permanent. Days and weeks 
were required before Mrs. Garfield could leave her bed, but the 
shadow gradually lifled. 

On the same day that her improvement was announced, the 
Senate of the United States adjourned. The President had sus- 
tained himself. No man ever stood higher in the hearts of the 
people. After his victory, he had returned to the Senate all but 
one of the nominations of Mr. Conkling's friends, which had been 
withdrawn in order to force action one way or the other uj)on 
Robertson's name. As for Senators Conkling and Piatt, after 
their resignations, they presented themselves to the New York 
Legislature, then in session, as candidates for reelection. The 
story of the memorable struggle at Albany is beyond the scope of 
these pages. Vice-President Arthur, being so closely attached to 
Conkling, was, of course, completely out of harmony with the 
administration. He was attached, heartily and honestly, to the 
other side. At one time he said he would resign the Vice-Presi- 
dency if he thought it would benefit Mr. Conkling. But the calm 
level of popular opinion to which President Garfield was so fond 
of referring, was overwhelmingly with him. The prospect was, for 
the first time, comparatively bright. As the weeks passed, ]\Irs. 
Garfield grew steadily better. The President was wearied by the 
arduous duties of the past three months, and needed a vacation. A 
time or two, in early June, he took his children for an afternoon trip 
to Mount Vernon. His face grew brighter and his step more elastic. 
As the struggle at Albany proceeded, the Administration steadily 
rose in public esteem, until the admiration of the people knew 
no bounds. The President paid especial attention to his Depart- 
ments. The Star Route cases Avere pushed with tremendous vigor. 
Irregularities in the Treasury and Naval Departments were dealt 
with most heroically. Altogether the sky was clear, and men 
looked forward to the future with confidence. Mrs. Garfield's 
health being still precarious, the question of where to spend tlic 
summer was carefully and thoughtfully discussed. 

On the 19th of June, the President and Mrs. Garfield, accom- 



516 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

panied by their daughter Mollie, and their two sons, Irvin and 
Abram, Colonel Rockwell and Dr. Boynton and wife, left Wash- 
ington for Long Branch. 

The President, with a loving husband's care, secured pleasant 
rooms in a quiet hotel for his wife, where she would get the full 
benefit of the sea breezes. On the 27th of June he returned to 
Washington to hold a cabinet meeting. The session was long, but 
characterized by great cordiality. The whole situation was gone 
over, and the President and his Cabinet separated for the summer, 
as they thought, with kindly hope and a multitude of good wishes 
for each other. The President was to return to Long Branch, 
meet his wife and family, and commence a carefully laid out sum- 
mer trip, including a visit to Williams College. The journey to 
Long Branch was not taken till two months later, and the re- 
mainder of the trip never was and never will be taken. 



SHOT DOWN. 517 



CHAPTER XIII. 

SHOT DOWN. 

A wasp flew oul upon our fairest son, 

And stung him to the quick with poisoned shaft, 

The while he chatted carelessly and laughed, 
And knew not of the fateful mischief done. 
And «o this life, amid our love begun, 

Envenomed by the insect's hellish craft, 

Was drunk by Death in one long feverish draught, 
And he was lost — our precious, priceless one I 

Oh, mystery of blind, remorseless fa/tel ^ 

Oh, cruel end of a most causeless hate ! 

That life so mean should murder life so great! 
"What is there left to us who think and feel, 
Who iave no remedy, and no appeal. 
But damn the wasp and crush him under heel ? — Holland. 

THE Senate .had adjourned. The bitterness of the politioal 
contest at Albany had subsided. Washington was deserted 
for the summer. Mrs. Garfield, slowly recovering from her long 
illness, was regaining health and courage at Long Branch. It was 
the purpose of the President, as soon as the pressing cares and 
anxieties of his great office could be put aside, to join his Avife by 
the sea-side, and to enjoy with her a brief respite from the bur- 
dens and distractions ^^•hich weighed him down. His brief life at 
the White House had .been any thing but happy. Sickness had 
entered almost from the date of his occupancy. The political im- 
broglio in the Senate, and afterwards in New York, had greatly 
annoyed him. He had h^id the mortification of seeing, in tlie very 
first months of his administration, his party torn with feuds, and 
brought to the verge of cJisruption. The clamor for office was 
deafening, and he had been obliged to meet and pacify tiie iiungry 
horde that swarmed like locusts around the capital. All this he 
had, during the spring and eiirly summer, met with the ei|u:niim- 



518 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

ity and dignity becoming his high station. So with the coming of 
July he purposed to rest with his family for a brief season by the 
sea. Afterwards he would visit Williams College and make ar- 
rangements for the admission of his two sous to those same classic 
halls where his own youthful thirst for knowledge had been 
quenched. 

On the morning of the 2d of July — fatal day in the calendar 
of American history — the President made ready to put his pur- 
pose into execution. Several members of the Cabinet, headed by 
Secretary Blaine, were to accompany him to Long Branch. A few 
ladies, personal friends of the President's family and one of his 
sons, were of the company ; and as the hour for departure drew 
near, they gathered at the depot of the Baltimore and Potomac 
Railway to await the train. The President and Secretary Blaine 
were somewhat later than the rest. On the way to the depot the 
Chief Magistrate, always buoyant and hopeful, was more than usu- 
ally joyous, expressing his keen gratification that the relations 
between himself and the members of his Cabinet were so harmoni- 
ous, and that the Administration was a unit. 

When the carriage arrived at the station at half past nine 
o'clock, the President and Mr. Blaine left it and entered the la- 
dies' waiting-room, which they passed through arm in arm. A 
moment afterwards, as they were passing through the door into 
the main room two pistol shots suddenly rang out upon the air. 
Mr. Blaine saw a man running, and started toward him, but 
turned almost immediately and saw that THE President had 
FALEEX ! It was instantly realized that the shots had been di- 
rected with fatal accuracy at the beloved President. Mr. Blaine 
sprang toward him, as did several others, and raised his head from 
the floor. Postmaster-General James, Secretary Windom, and 
Secretary Lincoln, who had arrived earlier at the train, were 
promenading on the platform outside. They, together with the 
policemen who were on duty in the neighborhood, immediately 
rushed to the spot where their fallen cliief lay weltering in blood. 
A moment afterwards the assassin was discovered, and before he 
could lose himself in the crowd the rniserable miscreant was con- 



SHOT DOWN.—" ONE CHANCE IN A HUNDRED." 519 

fronted by the rigid, passionate faces and strong uplifted arms of 
those to whom their own lives were but a bauble if they might 
save the President. The dastardly wretch cowered before them, 
and in the middle of B Street, just outside of the depot, was seized 
by the policemen and disarmed. A pistol of very heavy caliber 
M'as wrenched out of his hand, and it became clear that a large 
ball had entered the President's body. The assassin gave his name 
as Charles Jules Guiteau, and begged to be taken safely to jail. 
He was instantly hurried to police head(piarters and confined; and 
it was well for him that he M^as thus out of the way of the angry 
populace, who would not have hesitated to put an instant and 
tragic end to his despicable career. 

The poor President was borne on a couch to a room in the 
second story, and a preliminary examination of his wounds was 
•made ; but the ball, which had entered the right side of his back, 
near the spinal column and immediately over the hip bone, could 
not be found. The suiferer moaned at intervals, but otherwise ut- 
tered no complaint ; was conscious at all times except when under the 
influence of opiates, and was cheerful. When, in answer to his eager 
question, the physicians informed him that he had "one chance in 
a hundred" of living, he said calmly and bravely: "Then, doctor, 
we will take that chance!" Before he was removed from tlie 
depot his heart turned anxiously to his wife, and to her he dic- 
tated, by Colonel Rockwell, the following touching and loyal dis- 
patch : 

" Mrs. Lueretia R. Gai'field: 

"The President wi.<hes nie to say to you from liim that he has boon 
seriously hurt. IIow seriously he can not yet say. He is himself, and 
hopes you will come to him soon. He sends his love to you. 

"A. F. Rockwell." 

Colonel H. C. Corbin, Assistant Adjutant-General, immediately 
telegraphed for a special train to convey Mrs. Garfield to A\ ash- 
ington, and frequent dispatches, giving the latest intelligence of 
the President's condition, were sent to meet her at ditlerent sta- 
tions. In a few minutes after the shooting several physifians were 
beside the wounded President. First of those who were sninmoned 



520 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

was Dr. D. W. Bliss, who from first to last remained in charge as 
chief attending surgeon. Associated with him were Surgeon- 
General J. K. Barnes and Drs. J. J. Woodward and Robert liey- 
burn. It was at once determined to remove the President to the 
White House at the earliest practicable moment. Within a half 
hour preparations to that end had been made. At ten o'clock 
every thing was in readiness. The main room of the depot build- 
ing was cleared, and in a few moments the wounded President 
w^as borne through the building and placed in an ambulance which 
was in waiting on the outside. He bore the removal with great 
fortitude, not uttering a complaint or groan. The ambulance was 
surrounded by a cordon of police, and the horses were whipped 
into a gallop all the way to the White House. An excited crowd 
followed at a run, but were stopped at the White House, and none 
but a select few admitted. 

Meanwhile the excitement was at fever heat throughout the 
panic-struck city. Even before leaving the depot the pressure 
for admittance to the room where the President was lying was so 
great that the police could not keep back the crowd. Men per- 
sisted that they must see the President, despite the surgeons' or- 
ders that the room and hallways must not be filled up. Upon 
the arrival of the ambulance at the White House the gates of the 
Executive grounds were immediately closed and guarded by sol- 
diers and policemen, and nobody was admitted without authority 
from the President's private secretary. Those members of the 
Cabinet who were not at the depot when the shooting took place 
were immediately summoned, and all of them remained in attend- 
ance at the Executive Mansion during the day. 

After the President's removal, he began to react from the first 
shock of the wound. Several encouraging dispatches were sent 
out. At 11:30 A. M. the first official bulletin was issued by the 
physicians in attendance. It was as follows: 

"The President has returned to his normal condition. Will make 
another examination soon. His pulse is now 63." 

An hour later a second bulletin was issued: 



SHOT DOWN.— THE ASSASSIN. 521 

"The reaction from the shot injury *has been very gradual. Th6 
patient is suffering some pain, but it is thought best not to disturb him 
by making an exploration for the ball until after the cousultiition at 
3 p. M." 

From that hour, however, the symptoms became unfavorable; 
and at 2 : 45 P. M. the following unofficial dispatch was issued : 

"Executive Mansion, 2:45 r. m. 
"No official bulletin has been furnished by Dr. Bliss since 1 o'clock. 
The condition of the President has been growing more unfavorable since 
that time. Internal hemorrhage is takmg place, and the gravest fears 
are felt as to the result." 

As yet no critical knowledge of the President's injur)' had been 
reached. There was nothing on which the people could base a 
judgment of the relative probabilities of recovery and death. The 
shadows of evening gathered, and the darkness of night settled 
over fifty millions of sorrowing people. 

The minds of all naturally reverted to the assassin. The hope 
was cherished that he would prove to be a lunatic or madman, 
and that the American people would thus be spared the horrid 
contemplation of a cold-blooded attempt against the life of the 
noble statesman who had been called by the voice of his country- 
men to the highest place of honor. This hope, however, was 
soon dispelled. The assassin was found to be a mixture of fool 
and fanatic, who, in his previous career, had managed to build up, 
on a basis of total depravity, a considerable degree of scholarship. 
He was a lawyer by profession, and had made a pretense of prac- 
ticing in several places — more particularly in Chicago. In that 
city and elsewhere he had made a reputation both malodorous and 
detcs^table. In the previous spring, about the time of the inau- 
guration, he had gone to Washington to advance a claim to be 
Consul-General at Paris. He had sought and obtained interviews 
with both the President and Mr. Blaine, and pretended to believe 
that the former was on the point of dismissing the present consul 
at Paris to make a place for himself! Hanging about the Execu- 



522 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

tive Mansion and the Department of State for several weeks, lie 
seems to have conceived an intense hatred of the President, and 
to have determined on the commission of the crime. Unless his 
motive can be found in this, it would seem impossible to discover 
for what reason his foul and atrocious deed was committed. In 
the whole history of crime, it would, perhaps, be impossible to 
find a single example of a criminal with a moral nature so de- 
praved and loathsome as that displayed by Guiteau in the cell to 
which he was consigned. 

The second day. — The morning was anxiously awaited. The 
first news from Washington gave grounds of hope. The Presi- 
dent's mind had remained clear, and his admirable courage had 
had a marked effect in staying his bodily powers against the fear- 
ful efiects of the wound. Mrs. Garfield had, meanwhile, reached 
Washington, and was at her husband's bed-side. Both were hope- 
ful against the dreadful odds, and both resolved to face the issue 
with unfaltering trust. In the course of the early morning the 
President was able to take nourishment, thus gaining a small 
measure of that strength so needful in the coming struggle. The 
morning bulletins from the attending surgeons were as follows: 

" WASHrNGTON, July 3, 2 : 45 A. m. 

" The President has been quietly sleeping much of the time since 9 

p. M., awakening for a few moments every half hour. He has not 

vomited since 1 A. M., and is now taking some nourishment for the first 

time since his injury. Pulse, 124; temperature, normal; respiration, 18. 

"D. W. Bliss, M. D. 

" 4 A. M. — The President has just awakened, greatly refreshed, and 
has not vomited since 1 A. m. , having taken milk and lime-water on 
each occasion, frequently asking for it. Pulse, 120 — fuller and of de- 
cidedly more character; temperature, 98 2-10; respiration, 18. The 
patient is decidedly more cheerful, and has amused himself and watchers 
by telling a laughable incident of his early career. 

"D. W. Bliss, M. D. 

"6 A. M. — The President's rest has been refreshing during the night, 
and only broken at intervals of about half hours by occasional pain in 
the feet, and to take his nourishment of milk and lime-water and bits 



SHOT DOWN.— QUEEN VICTORIA'S SYMPATHY. 523 

of cracked ice, to relieve the thirst, which ha.s been constant. He is 
cheerful and hopeful, and has from thjo first manifested the most remark- 
able courage and fortitude. 

" 7 : 50 A. M. — This morning the physicians decide that no effort will 
be made at present to extract the ball, as its presence in the location de- 
termined does not necessarily interfere with the ultimate recovery of the 
President. 

"7:57 A. M. — Most of the members of the Cabinet who watched 
at the Executive Mansion last night remained until a late hour this 
morning. \ 

" 11 A. M. — The President's condition is greatly improved. He secures 
sufficient refreshing sleep ; and, during his waking hours, is cheerful, and 
is inclined to discuss pleasant topics. Pulse, 106 — with more full and 
safe expression; temperature and respiration, normal. 

" D. AV. Bliss, M. D." 

In the afternoon of the second memorable day, however, the 
President's symptoms grew worse, and news well calculated to 
alarm was telegraphed to all parts of the country. Of one thing 
there could be no doubt, and that was that the heart of the Na- 
tion was stirred to its profoundest depths, and that the whole civil- 
ized world was in sympathy with the American people and their 
stricken head. In London the news created the profoundest sen- 
sation. The Queen, from AVind.sor Palace, at once telegraphed to 
learn the fiicts, and then ordered her Minister of Foreign Affairs 
to send the following dispatch: 

" To Sir Edivard Thornton, Britiah Embassy, Washington: The Queen 
desires that you will at once express the horror with which she has 
learned of the attempt upon the President's life, and her earnest hope 
for his recovery. Her Majesty wishes for full and immediate rejiorts as 
to his condition. " L^kt) Ouanvim.k." 

From almost every civilized nation came similar messages of 
sympathy. Hardly a distinguished man in America failed to go 
on record in some way to express his horror and detestation cf 
the crime that had been committed. The spirit of party wa.'? ut- 
terly forgotten. The South and the North were at last aa one. 



524 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

The old Southern soldiers who had fought many a fierce battle 
under Lee and Johnston, as well as the legionaries who sprang 
up at the call of Lincoln, burst into tears at the thought of Gar- 
field bleeding! 

The afternoon bulletins of this first sad Sunday of July were 
well calculated to excite apprehension. The physicians said: 

"2 p. M. — The President has slept a good deal since last bulletin, 
though occasionally suffering from pain in both feet and ankles. Pulse, 
104; respiration, 18; tenijjerature, nearly normal. While the President is 
by no means out of danger, yet his symptoms continue favorable. 

" D. W. Bliss, M. D. 
"6 p. M. — There is no appreciable danger since last bulletin. The 
President sleeps well at intervals. Pulse, 108; temperature and respiration 
normal. " D. W. Buss, 

"J. K. Barnes, 
"J. J. Woodward. 
" 10: 30 p. M. — ^The condition of the President is less favorable. Pulse, 
120 ; temperature, 100 ; respiration, 20. He is more restless, and again 
complains of the pain in his feet. "D. W. Bliss, 

"J. K. Barnes, 
— "J. J. Woodward, 

"Robert Reyburn." 

The third day. — For the American people the morning sun of 
the Glorious Fourth shed onlv a disastrous twilight. Never before 
did this vast and sensitive citizenship waken to the realization of 
such a Fourth. In almost all parts of the country preparations 
had been made to observe the day with more than the usual 
outburst of patriotism. All this was turned to doubt and sorrow. 
The orator could speak of nothing but the wounded President and 
his probable fate. The people would hear nothing but dispatches 
that told of either reviving hope or coming despair. In many 
cities and country places the celebration was wholly abandoned ; 
in others the ceremonies were changed so as to be in keeping with 
the great national calamity. The people sat down in the shadow 
of their grief and waited for the worst. 

On the morning of the Fourth the distinguished Dr. D. Hayes 



SURGEONS' CONSULTATION. 525 

Agnew, of Philadelphia, and Dr. Frank H. Hamilton, of New 
York City, arrived at Washington, having been called thither as 
consulting surgeons. On their arrival they made a critical exam- 
ination of the President's condition and the method of treatment 
adopted by the physicians in charge, and thereupon issued the 
following bulletin: 

" ExECurrvE Mansion, 8:15 a. m. 
" We held a consultation with the physicians in charge of the Presi- 
dent's case at 7 o'clock this morning, and approve in every particular of 
the management and of the course of treatment that has been pursued. 

" Frank H. Hamilton, of New York. 

" D. H. Agnew, of Philadelphia." 

The regular aixnouncement appeared at the same time and carried 
to the people, far as the lightning's wings could bear it, the follow- 
ing message: 

" 8: 15 A. M. — ^The condition of the President is not materially different 
from that reported in the last bulletin (12:30 A. M.). He has dozed at 
intervals during the night, and at times has complained of the pain in his 
feet. The tympanitis has not sensibly increased. Pulse, 108 ; temper- 
ature, 99.4 ; respiration, 19. 

" D. W. Bliss, " Robert Reyburn, 

"J. K. Barnes, " Frank H. Hamilton, 

"J. J. Woodward, " D. Hayes Agnew." 

To this bulletin was added the report of a free conversation with 
Dr. Bliss, in which he said of the President's condition and 
prospects : 

"I admit that his state is very precarious, and the balance of proba- 
bilities is not in his favor, and yet there is reasonable ground for hope. 
We can not say that he is better or worse than he was last night, except 
that he has gained eight hours of time, aud his strength appears not to 
have declined. The symptoms of peritoneal inflammation are not more 
grave now than they were eight hours ago." 

The morning wore away in suspense, and the noonday report of 
the physicians was anxiously awaited. It was felt, however, that 
every hour now added to the President's life was a fair indication 



526 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

that he Avould have some chance iu the final struggle for recovery. 
Just after noon the following report was issued by the surgeons : 

" 12 : 30 p. M. — There has been but little change in the President's 
condition since the last bulletin. Complains much less of the pain in his 
feet. Light vomiting occasionally. Pulse, 110; temperature, 100; 
respiration, 24. "D. W. Bliss, "J. J. Woodward, 

J. K. Barnes, " Robert Keyburn." 



<< 



Meanwhile a diagnosis of the President's condition had been 
made, and though there was not entire unanimity as to the course 
of the ball and the consequent character of the wound, yet the 
physicians gave it as their opinion — some of them positively so 
declaring — that the ball, after striking the President's back above 
the twelfth rib and about two and a half inches to the right of the 
spine, had plunged forward and downward, fracturing the rib, 
penetrating the peritoneal cavity, piercing the lower lobe of the 
liver, and lodging perhaps in the front wall of the abdomen. The 
treatment during the first week after the President was wounded 
was based upon this diagnosis, but gradually thereafter the idea 
that the ball had traversed the body in the manner indicated was 
abandoned and a modified theory adopted in its stead.* 

* The great error, as subsequently developed in the diagnosis of the President's 
case, seems clearly to have arisen from the fact, that although the relative position 
of the assassin and his victim were definitely ascertained and could be precisely 
marked on the floor of the d^pot, yet the axial position of the President's body seems 
never to have been cortsidered/ It seems to have been taken for -granted that because 
the wound was in the back, therefore the assassin must have stood behind the 
President when he fired. So, in one sense, he undoubtedly did, but in another he 
did not. The murderer's position was five feet away and rather to the right side of the 
Chief Maghtrate, and Guiteau should therefore be said to have stood at an acuie 
side-angle and a little in the rear of his victim. This being the real position of the 
President and his assailant, it will readily be seen that the ball, instead of being 
"deflected," as has been so many times reiterated, really was very little turned 
from its course, but plunged straight across the President's back, going deeper and 
deeper as it proceeded, until, having fractured the spine in front, it was lodged in 
the thick tissues to th^ left of the vertebral column. If the assassin had fired 
square at the President's back, and the ball had struck where it did strike, the 
President would have been a dead man from the start. The axial position of the 
body was manifestly overlooked in making the diagnosis. 



MESSAGES OF SYMPATHY. 527 

As the Fourth More away the fear of immediate death .somewhat 
subsided. At half-past seven iu the evening the surgeons' bulletin 
carried the following message to the public: 

"7:35 p. M. — The President this evening is not so comfortable. He 
does not siifler so much from pain in the feet. The tympanitis is again 
more noticeable. Pulse, 126; temperature, 101.9; respiration, 24. 
Another bulletin will be issued at 10 p. m., after which, in order not to 
disturb the President unnecessarily, no further bulletins will be Issued 
until to-morrow morning. 

"D. W. Bliss, "J. J. Woodward, 

"J. K, Barnes, "Robert Reyburn." 

Taken all in all the advices during the day respecting the Pres- 
ident's condition had been more encouraging than those of the day 
before, when despondency seemed to be making itself generally 
felt in Washington and throughout the country. 

An unofficial bulletin at midnight — the last issued for the day — 

announced a further improvement, the pulse and temperature 

having again changed slightly for the better. At that hour the 

President was sleeping quietly. The peritoneal inflammation had 

decreased somewhat during the evening, and there was, generally 

speaking, a larger ground for hope. During the day from the 

extremes of the earth had come the profoundest expressions of 

sorrow for the great calamity to the Republic. From Prince 

Charles, of Bucharest, was received' the following touching 

dispatch : 

"Bucharest, Catrocini, July 4, 1881. 

" To President Garfield, Washington: 

"I have learned with the greatest indignation, and deplore most 

deeply, the horrible attempt against your precious life, and Ixg you to 

accept my warmest wishes for your quick recovery. Ciiauli-s." 

On the same day from far-off Japan this message of syiiq)athy 
was sent to the Minister resident of the Royal riovcM-iimcnt at 

Washington : 

"ToKio, July 4, 1881. 

"To Yoshida, Japanese Wnister, Washington: 

"The dispatch announcing an attempt upon the life of the President 



628 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

has caused here profound sorrow, and you are hereby instructed to 
convey, in the name of His Majesty, to the Government of the United 
States, the deepest sympathy and hope that his recovery will be speedy. 
Make immediate and full report regarding the sad event. 

"WOOYERO, 

"Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs." 

So the sun went down upon the national anniversary, and the 
stars of the summer night looked upon an anxious and stricken 
people. 

The fourth day. — The morning of the 5th of July broke with 
a more cheerful message. The President was decidedly better. 
The improvement in his condition w^as noticed shortly before 
midnight of Monday, and had become marked. The first bul- 
letin of the morning was so reassuring that the feeling of relief 
became general, and a cheerful hopefulness succeeded the dread 
of the previous day. The crowds of anxious people in all parts 
of the country returned slowly to their vocations — not, indeed, 
with a feeling of security, but with a good degree of hope for the 
President's ultimate recovery. The members of the Cabinet ex- 
perienced such a sense of relief that they were enabled to give 
consideration to their official duties. The President's physicians, 
while not taking a sanguine view of his case, did not discourage 
the hope of final recovery. The President — so said the bulletins — 
took nourishment and retained it. His pulse was lower through- 
out the day, and altogether his symptoms were such as to afford 
no little encouragement. The first official bulletin was issued at 
half-past eight in the morning. It was as follows : 

"8:30 a. m. — The President has passed a comfortable night, and his 
condition this morning is decidedly more favorable. There has been no 
I vomiting since last evening at 8 o'clock, and he has been able to retain 
the liquid nourishment administered. There is less tympanitis and no 
abdominal tenderness except in the wounded region. Pulse, 114; temper- 
ature, 100.5; respiration, 24. 

*'D. W. Bliss, "J. J. Woodward, 

"J. K. Barnes, " Robert Reyburn." 



ENCOURAGING SYMPTOMS. o29 

Drs. Agnew and Hamilton had both, in the meantime, been 
called to their, homes. To them the attending surgeon.s commu- 
nicated their views of the President's condition more fidly in a 
message during the forenoon, as follows : 

" E.xECUTivE Mansion, !)::30 a. m. 

" After you left the urgent .symptom continued. Tliere was much rest- 
lessness, constant slight vomiting, and by 8 o'clock p. m. tlie' President's 
condition seemed even moi'e .serious than when you saw liini. Since then 
the symptoms have gradually become more favorable. There has been 
no vomiting nor regurgitation of fluid from the stomach since 8 o'clock last 
evening. 

"The Piesident has slept a good deal du;ring the night, and this morning 
expresses himself as comparatively comfortable. The spasmodic pains in 
the lower extremities have entirely disappeared, leaving behind, however, 
much muscular soreness and tenderness to the touch. There is less tym- 
panitis, and no abdominal tenderness whatever, except in the hepatic 
resrion. Since 8 p. m. he has taken an ounce and a-half of chicken broth 
every two hours, and has retained all. The wound was again dressed 
antiseptically this morning. Altogether but one-half a grain of morphia 
has been administered hypodermically during the last twenty-four hours, 
and it has been found quite sufficient. His pulse, however, still keeps 
up. At 8:30 a. m. it was 114; temperature, 100.5; respiration, 24. 
Seventy-two hours have now elai)sed since the wound was received. We 
cannot bnt feel encouraged this morning, although, of course, we do not 
overlook any of the perils that still beset the path towaid recovery. The 
course of treatment agreed upon will be steadily pursued. 
"D. W. Bllss, "J. J. Woodward, 

"J. K. Barnes, "Robert Reyburn." 

In the course of the day the feeling of confidence grew apace. 
There were not wanting many grave apprehensions, the most seri- 
ous of all being the fear that the dreaded peritonitis would set in 
and destroy the President's life. But the hours crept by, an<I no 
symptoms of such inflammation appeared. The President, though 
restless and somewhat weakened, kept in good courage; an<l dur- 
ing the forenoon, awaking from .sleej), denounced witii not a little 
s])irit the "wishy-washy" food which the doctors |)rescribe(l fi.r 
him Durino- the day it was quite clearly determined iVnm tjjc 
34 - 



530 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

natural indications of the case, that, contrary to the previously 
expressed views of the attending physicians, the President's inter- 
nal organs had not been perforated by the ball. This discovery 
gave additional grounds of hope. The noonday bulletin strength- 
ened rather than discouraged the idea of ultimate recovery : 

"12:30 p. M. — The favorable condition of the symptoms reported in 
the last bulletin continues. There has been no recurrence of tlie vomiting. 
Pulse, 110; temperature, 101; respiration, 24. The President lies at 
present in a natural sleep. No further bulletins will be issued till 8:30 
p. M. , unless in case of an unfavorable change. 

" D. W. Bliss, " J. J. Woodward, 

" J. K. Barnes, " Robert Reyburn." 

Under the assurances given by the surgeons the people began 
to find time to discuss the collateral circumstances of the crime, 
the character of the criminal, what should be his punishment, the 
course of events in case of President Garfield's death, and the 
dancer in general to be apprehended from political assassins. At 
first it was believed that the criminal had committed the deed on 
account of rebuifs received in seeking an appointment. This, 
Guiteau himself stoutly denied, declaring that he had tried to 
destroy the President wholly and solely for the good of the coun- 
try, and (d the command of God! He had been influenced only 
by high and patriotic motives ! When the people came to under- 
stand the reasons why he had shot the President, against whom 
he had not the slightest enmity, they would change their mind as 
to him and his deed ! Every utterance of the monstrous villain 
was of the self-same character, and to all his loathsome speeches was 
added the disgusting cowardice which he constantly exhibited in 

his cell. 

Many incidents in the previous life of Guiteau came to the surface 
and were published. It was found that he had come to Wash- 
ington shortly after March 4. On April 8 he made his appear- 
ance at the Navy Department library and registered his name on 
the visitors' book. He returned on April 14, and from that time 
up to the time of the adjournment of the Senate he was a daily 



GUITEAU'S LITEKARY TASTE. 531 

visitor. On one occasion he had told the lihrarian, Cai)tain J, 
Ross Browne, that he Avas going to be appointed Consul to France. 
He had been on hand every day, sometimes before the library was 
opened, and remained all day. He had never shown himself verv 
communicative, and when spoken to he responded in monosyllables. 
He seemed to be of a morose disposition, but was quiet and orderly 
in his manner. While in the library he sat in a corner readiuir a 
book. He had thus read Lang's American Battles, and frequently 
called for the manual of the Consular Service, over which he would 
sit pouring for hours. The last book he had read was John l\usscll 
Young's Tour of General Grant. Mr. Browne one day said to him : 
" I should think if you wanted a place you ought to be up at the 
Senate or at the State Department. Some one will get ahead of 
von." 

"I can attend to my own affairs," was the rather sullen retort, 
and then glancing up suspiciously, he asked : " Have you told any 
one about my place?" Further efforts at conversation he repulsed. 

The possible event of the President's death was a subject of the 
gravest anxiety. It was well known that Vice-President Arthur 
had not, in the recent imbroglio between the friends of the ad- 
ministration and Senator Conkling, been in sympathy with the 
President. It was to the Senator indeed that General Arthur owed 
his nomination. And so among the immediate supporters of the 
President and a large part of the people generally, there were, in 
prospect of the Chief Magistrate's death, deep forebodings of a dis- 
astrous reversal of the policy of the government and a universal 
uproar in the circles of office-holding. General Arthur became 
the central figure among the possibilities of the future. To the 
Vice-President the situation was exceedingly trying ; but fortunately 
for the good name of the Repul)lic he so demeaned himself as to 
M'in universal respect. His whole bearing from tlie day ol ilie 
crime to the close of the scene was such as to indicate the profound- 
est sorrow and anxiety. His forbearance from comment, beyon<l 
giving expression to his grief, was noticed as the result of the ex- 
ercise of sound common sense under trying circumstances, and the 
hasty opinions which had been pressed in many (quarters when the 



532 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

worst was feared were quickly revised and recalled.* General Arthur 
visited the Executive Mansion on the afternoon of the 5th, and 
remained for an hour in conversation with members of the Cabinet. 
He did not see the President, the physicians deeming it uuAvise to 
admit him. The members of the Cabinet, however, spoke of him 
in terms of warm friendliness, feeling that he fully shared with them 
the sympathy and sorrow which they entertained in common with 
the Nation at large. 

The evening bulletin, issued at half-past eight o'clock, was brieflv 
as follows : 



(( 



8 : 30 p. M. — The condition of the President continues as favorable as 
at the last bulletin. Pulse, 106; temperature, 100.9; respiration, 24. No 
further bulletin will be issued till to-morrow morning, unless in case of 
an unfavorable change. 

"D. W. Bliss, "J. J. Woodward, 

"J. K. Barnes, " Robert Re yburn." 

At eleven o'clock of this (Tuesday) evening, Secretary Blaine 
sent out a dispatch announcing, as the result of the day, " a sub- 
stantial gain." 

The fifth day. — It was now- the crisis of summer. The intense 
heat was an unfavorable circumstance with which the physicians 
in charge of the wounded President had to contend. Wednesday 
was ushered in with a fearfully high temperature. In order to 
relieve the President as far as possible from the oppression caused 
by the intense heat, the attending physicians put into operation a 
simple refrigerating apparatus, which it was thought would render 
the atmosphere of his room much more comfortable than it had 

*The only farcical thing which has happened in connection with the dark 
tragedy has been the miserable and ludicrous shuffling of the base crowd of ofBce- 
holders and office-seekers wliich clung to General Garfield's skirts, denouncing and 
abusing General Arthur and his friends until the possibility of his accession to 
power dawned on the minds of the patriots. The quickness which they displayed 
in discovering the latent virtues of the Vice-President and advancing themselves 
to the rank of his most ardent supporters, even before the illustrious dead was 
consigned to his grave, was a picture full of the most disgusting subserviency of 
the place-hunter. 



BETTER SYMPTOMS. 533 

been hitherto. It consisted of a nnnibor of troughs of galvanized 
iron, about ten inches in width and fourteen feet in k'ngth, phiccd 
on the floor along the walls, and filled with water and broken ice. 
Over these troughs, and corresponding with them in length, were 
suspended sheets of flannel, the lower edges of which were immersed 
in the ice-water which filled the troughs. The water was thus 
absorbed and carried upward by capillary attraction in the flannel, 
as oil is in the wick of a lamp, until the sheets were saturated. 
This cold water, both by direct contact with the air, and by the 
rapid evaporation which took place over the extended surface of 
the saturated flannel, lowered the temperature of the room. Very 
soon after this apparatus was put into operation, it made a per- 
ceptible change in the temperature, and the President was greatly 
refreshed. The morning bulletin was given to the public at half- 
past eight. It said : 

" 8 : 30 A. M. — The President has passed a most comfortable night, and 
has slept well. His condition has remained throughout as favorable as 
when the last bulletin was issued. The pulse is becoming less frequent, 
and is now 98 ; temperature, 98.4; respiration, 23. 

"D. AV. Bliss, "J. J. Woodward, 

*' J. K. Barnes, Robert Reyburn." 

This was decidedly the best report which the physicians had yet 
been able to make. The effect was immediate and wide-spread. 
What might almost be called a feeling of confidence supervened ; 
the channels of trade flowed on, and the people were elated at the 
prospect of a complete restoration to life and the duties of his 
high office of him whom their votes had raised to that liigh emi- 
nence. In all parts of the world expressions of symi)athy ecn- 
tinued to be given and transmitted to our Government. 

His Majestv, the Emperor of Germany, inquired with great 
anxiety about 'the condition of President Garfield, and directed his 
Charge d'Affidres, Count Beust, to inform him thereof by cable. 
In consequence of Count Beust's report, His Majesty ordere<l h.m 
to express to Secretary Blaine his satisfaction on account .d the 
favorable information, and his best wishes for the spe.-.ly recovery 



534 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

of the President. Count Beust, in obedience to the wishes of his 
Government, and in manifestation of his personal sympathy, called 
three times during the day at the Executive Mansion. 
The noonday bulletin was brief, but satisfactory : 

" 12:30 p. M. — The President remains quite as comfortable as at the 
date of the last bulletin. He takes his nourishment well. Pulse, 100; 
temperature, 99.7; respiration, 23. 

"D. W. Bliss, "J. J. Woodward, 

"J. K. Barnes, "Robert Eeyburn." 

Presently, after this report was made, the attending physicians 
sent to the consulting surgeons a someAvhat lengthy dispatch, 
stating in detail the progress of the President's case. The general 
eifect of this, as well as of the previous bulletin, was further to 
allay public anxiety and to strengthen the belief that the Presi- 
dent would triumph in the fearful struggle which he was making 
against the effects of his wound. And to this end, whatever the 
faith and hope of a great and sincere people could do to alleviate 
and save was gladly and earnestly given in sympathy and words 
of cheer. The bulletin of the evening was in the same general 
tone as the two preceding. It said : 

■ *' 8 : 30 p. M* — The President's condition continues as favorable as at 
last report. He has passed a very comfortable day, taking more nour- 
ishment than yesterday. Pulse, 104; temperature, 100.6; respiration, 
23. Unless unfavorable symptoms develop, no further bulletins will be 
issued until to-morrow morning. 

"D. W. Bliss, "J. J. Woodward, 

"J. K. Barnes, " Robert Re yburn." 

Altogether, the day was the least eventful — certainly the least 
exciting — of any since the great crime was committed. Discus- 
sions as to the character of the President's injury, and of the 
probable disposition of Guiteau, took the place of those eager 
inquiries and indignant comments of the first few days after the 
deed was done. 

The sixth day. — The morning brought nothing in the nature of 



PUBLIC CONFIDENCE IMPROVED. 535 

ihe unexpected, in relation to the President's condition or liis sur- 
roundino's. If his chances for recoverv had not advanced, thev 
had at least not become less than on the previous day. Callers at 
the White House came and departed in considerable numbers, and 
the natural tendency of the human mind to build high hopes upon 
narrow foundations, served to keep the general public, as well as 
those having more intimate relations with the President, in excel- 
lent spirits. While a hundred dangers yet surrounded the path 
toward restored health, confidence that the courageous Chief 
Magistrate would travel that path in safety, prevailed more and 
more. During the day. Dr. Boynton, of Cleveland, for a long 
time the friend of the President's family, and recently the attend- 
ing physician in the case of Mrs. Garfield's protracted illness, 
reached Washington, and although not invited to become one of 
the consulting surgeons, he took his place as an attendant upon 
the President, and remained near him to the end. The morning 
bulletin was almost sanguine in its tone : 

"Executive ^Mansion, 9:15 a. m. 
"The President has passed a most comfortable night, and continues 
steadily to improve. He is cheerful, and asks for additional food. 
Puls(i, 94; temperature, 99.1; respiration, 23. There will be no further 
bulletins issued until 1 o'clock. 

"D. W. Bliss, "J. J. Woodward, 

"J. K. Barnes, "Robert Reyburn." 

This report incited additional hope, and the belief prevailed 
more and more, both in medical circles and among the people at 
large, that the President would win the battle. One of tiic (■i)i- 
sodcs of the day was the publication of a letter from Senator Conk- 
ling, which, though really an earnest expression (.f symitathy il.r 
the President and his fomily, was largely devoted to the (|uestiun 
as to whether a discrimination should not be mad(> in the punish- 
ment of attempted murder, based on the rank of the jx-rson assailed. 
The distinction was drawn between nnirdcr, whi<-h seems to re- 
quire the same punishment whoever may l)e the victim, and the 



536 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

attempt to murder. The Senator's letter was addressed to Attorney- 
General MacYeagb, and was as follows: 

" Fifth Avenite Hotel, New York, July 5, 1881. 

'' Mij Dear Sir: In the abhorrence with which all decent men alike 
shudder at the attempt to murder the President, I have given thought to 
a matter to which your attention may or may not have turned. Our 
criminal code treats premeditated homicide in all cases alike, irrespective 
of the victim. Murder being visited by the greatest penalty, perhaps no 
distinction between one case and another could be founded on the public 
relations held by the person slain. But in case of attempt to murder 
broad distinctions can be made between assailing the life of an individual, 
and an attempt to take a life of special value to the whole people. The 
shocking occurrence of Saturday I think demands that the definition and 
punishment of assaults aimed at high executive officers, whether successful 
or not, should be made thoroughly rigorous. The man who attempts the 
life of the President, if morally responsible, commits an offense Avhich the 
Nation ought to guard against, anct punish by the exertion of all the 
power civilized nations may employ. I suggest this as deserving consid- 
eration. 

"My profound sympathies are with the President, and with all of you 
every hour. The conflict of reports keeps hope and fear striving with 
each other, with nothing stable except faith and trust, that the worst is 
overpassed. I wish you would express to the President my deepest sym- 
pathy in this hour, which should hush all discords and enlist all prayers 
for his safe deliverance. Please also give to Mrs. Garfield my most re- 
spectful condolence. Trusting that all will be Avell, cordially yours, 

"ROSCOE CONKLING." 

In the early afternoon another bulletin was issued by the sur- 
geons. The report said 

" ExECUTTVE Mansion, 1 p. m. 

" The condition of the President continues quite as favorable as this 
morning. Pulse, 100 ; temperature, 100.8; respiration, 23. Unless some 
unfavorable change should occur no further bulletin will be issued until 
8: 30 p. M. "D. W. Bliss, "J. J. Woodward, 

"J. K. BaPwNes, "Robert Reyburn." 

It was noticed during the day that the preparations made by 
the surgeons in attendance on the President indicated their belief 



CONDITION STILL FAVORABLE. 537 

in a long illness, antl the public came to understand that an in- 
definite period of suspense might be anticipated. As it related to 
the criminal, it was clear that he would simply be held in custody 
until such time as might, by the recovery or death of his victim, 
indicate the technical character of the crime committed, and the 
punishment consequent thereon. The bulletins sent abroad by 
Secretary Blaine during the day, especially the one directed to 
Minister White at Berlin, stated that for the preceding thirty-six 
hours the improvement in the President's condition had been 
steady and constant, and the evening report of the attending sur- 
geons was essentially a repetition of that issued in the afternoon. 
The seventh day. — AVith the morning of Friday there was prac- 
tically no change to record in the President's condition. He had 
passed the night as usual, sleeping and waking at intervals. The 
weather was excessively hot. ISIanv contrivances and machines 
were invented and offered to the authorities, the purpose of which 
was to reduce, by mechanical means, the temperature of the Pres- 
ident's apartment. Several of these instruments were tried, and 
one, invented by Mr. Dorsey, a .skilful mining engineer, was se- 
lected and set up in the Executive Mansion. The temperature of 
the room where the patient lay was thus brought under control 
and reduced to the desired degree. The morning bulletin of the 
surgeons was considered especially favorable : 

"ExECUTrv'E Mansion, July 8, 8: 15 a. m. 
"The condition of the President continues fovorable. He is more com- 
fortable than on any previous morning. Pulse, 96; temperature, 02; 
respiration, 23. The wound is beginning to discharge laudable i)us. 
"D. W. Bliss, "J. J. Woodward, 

"J. K. Barnes, "Robert Keyburn."! 

Soon after this report was issued, however, there was an unfa- 
vorable turn in the case, and one of those flurries of excitement, 
so common in the subsequent history of the President's progress, 
occurred. The President grew restless, and comi)lained (.f weari- 
ness. The temperature and pulse and respiration ran up, indicat- 
ing the presence of considerable fever. This change, however, was 



LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

ex2)laiued by the physicians as the necessary concomitant of sup- 
puration then beginning in the wound. The noonday bulletin 
was brief: 

"12:30 p. M. — The progress of the President's case continues to be 
favorable. Pulse, 108; temperature, 101.4; respiration, 24. 
"D. W. Bliss, "J. J. Woodward, 

"J. K.. Barnes, "Robert Reyburn." 

One of the marked circumstances attending the tragic event, the 
course of which is outlined in these pages, was the universal de- 
sire of the American people to do something to contribute towards 
the President's recovery. It would be vain to attempt to enu- 
merate the thousand and one expedients and suggestions w^hich, 
out of the goodness of the popular heart, came from every direc- 
tion. Each out of his own nature added his own gift. The poet 
contributed his verse ; the physician, his cure ; the inventor, his 
contrivance; the gardener, his choicest cluster; and even the 
crazy beldam her modicum of witchcraft. From the center of 
the crowded city to the remotest corners of the prairie the slight- 
est syllable of indifference to the President's condition would have 
been instantly resented — first with a look of contempt and then 
with a blow. The evening bulletin, though pitched in a tone of 
encouragement, still indicated fever: 

"8 P.M. — The President's condition continues favorable. He has 
passed a very comfortable afternoon, and has taken more nutriment than 
on previous days. Pulse, 108; temperature, 101.3; respiration, 24. The 
conditions continue so favorable that there will be no further bulletin 
until to-morrow morning. 

"D. W. Bliss, "J. J. Woodward, 

"J. K. Barnes, "Robert Reyburn." 

During the day a brief but touching dispatch was received from 
the surviving members of the family of the Marquis de LaFayette. 
Another message came from St. Petersburg expressing, as well it 
might, the horror of the Czar and his government for the crime of 



LETTERS OF SYMPATHY. 539 

assassination.* A tliird Mas received from the minister for foreign 
aifairs of the Argentine Republic, expressing the sorrow of that 
government for the great crime wliich had darkened the annals of 
American history. 

Tl\e eighth day. — A Aveek had now elapsed since the President 
was wounded. His condition was not materiallv changed. His 
will and courage were unimpaired, and the reports of the surgeons 
and attendants indicated — indeed positively declared — a continual 
improvement. During the day, for the first time since the Presi- 
dent was wounded, the three younger members of his family were 
permitted to visit their father, one at a time. The President had 
repeatedly asked for them, but it had not been thought advisaljle 
to gratify his wish before. Vice-President Arthur also called 
during the morning. 

The morning bulletin appeared as usual, and was as follows : 

Executive Mansion, July 0, 8:30 a. m. 
" The President has passed a tranquil night, and this morning expresses 
himself as teeling quite comfortable. We regard the general progress of . 
the case as very satisfactory. Pulse, this morning, 100; temperature, 
99.4; respiration, 24. 

"D. W. Bliss, "J. J. Woodward, 

"J. K. Barnes, "Robert Reyburn." 

Whatever might be the progress of the President's wound to- 
wards recovery, there could be no doubt that the vigor of his 
mental faculties was nearly up to the standard of lualtli. At 
times, indeed, there seemed to be an unusual, and, perhaps, mi- 
natural, exhilaration of his faculties. He heard every thing, and 

-One of tho follies which prevailed to a greater or less degree in connection 
with the shooting of the President, was the attempt to draw a pan.Uel between tliat 
event and the recent killing of the Czar Alexander. There was no pamlUl at all. 
The Czar died in the cause of despotism ; Garfield, in the cause ..f IdHrty. Hu- 
one was killed hv his own people, whose rights he and his House ha.l tran.pl.d ni 
the dust; the other was shot down hy a villainous fool who sprang out like a 
coiled rattlesnake upon the innocent and beloved ruler ..f ;> free people, who would 
have died by thousands to save his life. Let us hear no more of Hi-- likenes-s l«- 
tween the deaths of Garfield and Alexander IL 



o40 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

"was eager to talk and to read the papers. Of course, all exciting 
causes were excluded by the physicians, but the President was 
restless under the restraint. Sometimes he wished to debate ques- 
tions with his attendants, and, anon, when that was forbidden, he 
would indulge in some pleasantry, as vras his custom in health. 
The surgeons noticed that he managed to convey a great deal in 
a few words. Sometimes he comprised sentences into a single 
expression. When some one told him that the heart of the peo- 
ple was in bed with him, he replied : '' Sore heart." He did not 
complain, however ; not a querulous word escaped his lips. AVhcn 
he was inclined to debate propositions, and reasons were given 
him why a thing should be thus, he was very ready to point out 
any weakness in the reasoning. In a word, the President was 
Jbimself, and retained possession of all his mental faculties. 

The afternoon and evening bulletins were issued at the usual 
hours. They said: 

" 1 p. M. — The condition of the President continues to be favorable. 

Pulse, 104; temperature, 101.2 ; respiration, 22. The next bulletin will 

be issued at 8 p. m. 

" D. W. Bliss, "J. J. Woodward, 

"J. K. Barxes, " Robert Eeyburn." 

" 8: 15 p. M. — The President's condition has continued favorable durincr 
the day. The febrile reaction does not differ materially from that of yes- 
terday. Pulse, 108; temperature, 101.9; respiration, 2-4. 
" D. W. Bliss, "J. J. Woodward, 

"J. K. Barxes, "Robert Reyblto;." 

So, after a week of intense anxiety, the twilight of Saturday 
evening closed around the world, hiding in its folds alike the 
hopes and the fears of the people. 

The ninth day. — It was Sunday again. The Christian public 
had, from the first, taken up the President's cause with heartfelt 
anxiety. Scarcely a pulpit or pew in the land had failed to re- 
spond in yearning and prayer for his recovery. This anxiety had 
been confined to no sect or creed or party. From Romanist to 
Free-Churchman it was all one voice of sympathy and entreaty 



THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER. 541 

to heaven for the President's life. In greater or less degree, mill- 
ions of men found in themselves a change of feeling, and a growth 
of appreciation, of thorough trust and of high regard, as they 
looked anxiously to the bedside of the President. His calm res- 
ignation and readiness to meet death, with his cool courage and 
unwavering resolution to do his best to preserve a life useful and 
precious ^to millions ; his patient endurance of pain, and of all 
the restraints deemed essential to his recovery ; his tenderness of 
feeling and his royal strength of will, made him loved with an 
unspeakable love by millions of true-hearted men and women 
throunhout the land. It was not too much to sav that the week 
^Yhich had elapsed had lifted the National standard of true Chris- 
tian manhood for all time to come. The whole nation was edu- 
cated by the affliction of one. The people will, perhaps, never 
realize how much they learned by the bedside of the wounded 
President. In knowledge of merely material things the whole 
Nation grew w^iser. It had been studying physical injuries, their 
nature and treatment, with such intense interest, that there were 
thousands of school-boys who knew more of such subjects than 
their fathers did when the crime w^as committed. This, however, 
was an insignificant part of the knowledge gained. :\Ioral cult- 
ure was advanced; how much, the people could but surmise. 
There were millions of men and women who realized, as they had 
never done before, the value of calm fortitude, resolute will, and 
strict obedience in time of trial. 

The first bulletin of Sunday morning was specially encourag- 
ing. It said: 

Washington, July 10, 8 a. m. 

" The President has passed the most comfortable night he has oxihti- 
enced since he was wounded, sleeping tranquilly, aii<l with few breaks. 
The general progress of his symptoms continues to be favorable. Pulse. 
106 ; temperature, 100 ; respiration, 23. 

"D. W. Bli.ss, "J. J. Woodward, 

" J. K. Barnes, ' Robert Revburn." 

The church services of the day were almost exclusively (levoted 
to sermons on the lessons derived and derivable from the Nation's 



542 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

sorrow, and to prayers for the rcstoratiou of the beloved Chief 
Magistrate. Lessons not a few were drawn from the great national 
catastrophe, and more particularly from the example which the 
afflicted chieftain had set to all the people — an example so full of 
patience and courage as to be cited in praise and panegyric for all 
time to come. For more than a w^eek it had been as if the Nation 
were sitting at the bedside of a man in sore distress, counting his 
pulses, noting his temperature and breathing, and listening for 
every whispered word. But neither the imminent presence of 
death nor the agony of long-continued suffering had drawn from 
the President a single word of anger or vindictivencss toward 
any one. Such a lesson was not to be lost on the American peo- 
ple, and it was clearly foreseen that if his life should be spared, 
he would rise to an influence over the public mind and destiny 
not equaled in the case of an}" man since the days of Lincoln. In 
the early afternoon, and again in the evening, the usual bulletins 
came with brief but encouraging words from the surgeons: 

" 1 p. M. — The President's symptoms continue to he favorable. Pulse, 
102; temperature, 100.5; respiration, 22. 7 p. M. — The President's 
symptoms continue to make favorable progress. Pulse, 108 ; tempera- 
ture, 101.9; respiration, 24." 

Unofficial information from the President's bedside was, how- 
ever, less favorable than the official reports. Many candid and 
cautious observers about the sick-room were more apprehensive 
than the physicians seemed to be, that the President was not so 
clearly on the road to recovery as could have been hoped. Among 
the latter was Professor B. A. Hinsdale, of Hiram College, who 
sent to Cleveland during the day a dispatch for publication among 
the old friends of the Garfield family, in which he said : 

"The President is by no means out of danger, and I do not think it 
wise for people to settle down in a belief that he is. Of course we have 
a strong reason to hope that he will recover, but people ought to remem- 
ber that the road to recovery will be a long oue, beset with many 
dangers." 



SHOT DOWN.— THE OPPEESSIVE HEAT. 543 

One of the peculiarities of the President's case was the invariable 
cheerfulness of the patient. He seemed to regard it as a part of 
his duty to keep those about him in good spirits, and to aid the 
physicians in the work of bringing him through. He frequently 
asked to see the bulletins, and sometimes made humorous remarks 
about their contents. His food was many times a subject of some 
jest, and when it did not suit him, he had his revenge by perpe- 
trating some pleasant satire about the oifending article, or the 
cooks who had prepared it. On one occasion, the President asked 
for a drink, whereupon Major Swaim handed him some milk, to 
which the physicians had added a small quantity of old rum. The 
President, after drinking it, looked at Major Swaim with a dis- 
satisfied expression, and said : " Swaim, that's a rum dose, is n't 
it?" On other occasions the sufferer spoke gravely, biit always 
hopefully, of his conditions and prospects, expressing the most 
earnest hopes for speedy and perfect recovery. 

The tenth day. — The weather was still oppressive, and the Pres- 
ident was distressed with the heat. The artificial contrivances 
hitherto employed to reduce the temperature of his room, and to 
maintain the same at a given degree, had been but partly success- 
ful. An effort was now made on a more elaborate scale to over- 
come the heat by artificial means, and thus to furnish the President 
as much comfi)rt as a moderate and equable temperature could 
afford. Monday, the eleventh of July, was mostly devoted to this 
work. Several fire-engines and large cast-iron boilers were put in 
position near the cast basement door of the White House, and car- 
penters and machinists were set to work putting up ajiparatus of 
enormous proportions, connected with the ventilating machinery. 
Locomotive head-lights to illuminate the scene were snpi)licd, so 
that there should be no interruption until the work wMsd-uif. The 
basis of the refrigerating apparatus was the Jennings marlunc, 
heretofore referred to; but Professor Newcomb and M.ijnr P.nvdl 
jointly assisted in perfecting some additional appliances fi.r drying 
and purifying the air to be admitted to the sick diambcr. Sev.-ral 
other devices of an entirely different character w.-re brought (.. th.' 
attention of the physicians in attendanee, ami experimental ma- 



544 



LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 



chiuery was set up to exhibit some of them, but they were mostly 

unsuccessful. The President was not aware of the efforts of their 

inventors to benefit him. 

But by means of the Jennings machine an even temperature 

of 77° Fahrenheit was preserved in the sick room, and the capacity 

of the machinery was found 
to be sufficient to reduce the 
temperature several degrees 
lower, if it should be thought 
necessary to do so. The win- 
dows of the President's room 
remained open, so that the 
air which was forced into his 
chamber found ready exit, 
thus insuring perfect venti- 
lation. 

The bulletin issued by the 
surgeons on Monday morn- 
ing was 
The report said 




more encouragnig. 



DR. D. W. BUSS. 



"July 11-8 A. M.— The Pres- 
ident passed a comfortable night, 
and his condition shows an im- 
provement over that of yesterday. Pulse, 98;, temperature, 99.2; res- 
piration, 22." 

The President continued talkative. Only the positive injunc- 
tion of the physicians could keep him from speaking out on all 
subjects that came into his mind. During the day he indulged in 
his accustomed pun. To one of his attendants he said, jocosely : 
" I wish I could get up on my feet ; I would like to see whether I 
have any backbone left or not ! " The sly backward look at the re- 
cent political struggle in which his administration had been engaged, 
involving the question of the presidential backbone, was not bad 
for a sick man battling for his life. 

Justly or unjustly, the regular bulletins came to be somewhat 



SHOT DOWN.— THE TENTH DAY. 545 

distrusted by the people. The feeling began to spread that, al- 
fliough the naked facts of temperature, pulse, and respiration re- 
ported in the bulletins were not to be questioned as to their accu- 
racy, yet the comments and construction put by the attending sur- 
geons upon the facts, were too rose-colored to meet the conditions 
of exact truth. At the same time this opinion gained ground 
with the public, a feeling of quite implicit confidence .sprang up 
respecting the official reports of the President's condition sent 
abroad, more especially in reference to those sent to Lowell, ^lin- 
ister at St. James, by Secretary Blaine. These messages from 
the principal member of the President's cabinet came, by and by, 
to be looked for with fully as much confidence as to their accu- 
racy as did the surgeons' official bulletins. On the 11th of July, 
Secretary Blaine sent out one of these messages which gave great 
comfort, as follows: 

"Lowell, Minister, London: 

"At the beginning of the tenth day since he was wounded, the symp- 
toms of the President are all hopeful and favorable. Suppuration goes 
on with no higher pulse or temperature than should be expected. His 
milk diet, of a pint and a half per day, is relished and digested. His 
physical strength keeps up wonderfully, and his mind is entirely clear 
and active, Avithout showing excitement. His physicians do not count him 
beyond danger, but the general confidence in his recovery is strength- 
ened every hour. " Bl.vine, Secretary." 

Later in the day, however, the condition of the President was 
less favorable than that presented in Mr. Blaine's dispatch, and the 
evening bulletin was constrained to admit a higher fever than at 
any time previously. The afternoon and evening official reports 
were as follows: 

" 1 p. M.— The favorable progress of the President continues. Pulse, 
106; temperature, 99.8; respiration, 24. 7 P. M.— Ti.e President has 
had rather more fever this afternoon. In other respects, his condition is 
unchanged. Pulse, 108; temperature, 102.8; respiration, 24." 

The eleventh cIcuj.—Xh the President's case progressed, tlu- pub- 
35 



546 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

lie became divided in their views of the prospect of recovery. Physi- 
cians themselves disagreed as to both the diagnosis and the treat- 
ment of the President's injury. The distinguished Dr. Hammond, 
of New York, did not hesitate openly to condemn the course pur- 
sued by the attending surgeons. Other noted physicians, not a 
few, held similar opinions ; and a series of able and exhaustive ar- 
ticles appeared in the New York Herald, criticising with severity 
the methods and views of those who were immediately responsible 
for the management of the ease. The attending surgeons were 
considerably annoyed by these strictures, and many sharp replies 
were returned to those physicians wdio, without having personally 
examined the President's wound, ventured to express definite opin- 
ions on questions which those for more than a week in immediate 
attendance upon the patient, had been unable to decide. The news- 
papers also divided, one part of them publishing all the favorable, 
and the other all the unfavorable news from the sick chamber of 
the White House. The former felt called upon to explain away 
every unfavorable symptom which appeared ; and the latter, to be- 
cloud all the favorable news with doubt. This diversion in public 
opinion continued manifest during the remainder of the President's 
illness. 

The first news for Tuesday, the 12th of July, came in the bulle- 
tins of the surgeons, and was as follow^s : 

"8 a. m. — The President is comfortable this morning. Pulse, 96; tem- 
perature, 99.6; respiration, 22." 

In addition to these regular reports of the attending physicians, 
much unofficial information of the President's condition was con- 
stantly given to the public through the daily press. Nearly all of 
the leading newspapers had regular correspondents at the Capital, 
and the reports which they sent each day were quite extended and 
generally full of interest. These unofficial communications were, 
in large part, made up of conversations which the reporters held 
from time to time with the surgeons and nurses of the President; 
and, although in many cases the news sent out from these sources 



SHOT DOWN.— THE ELEVENTH DAY. 



547 



was conflicting and contradictory, yet tlic public was greatly in- 
debted to the industry and skill with which each morning's accounts 
were prepared. During the 12th of July, Dr. F. H. Hamilton, 
one of the consulting surgeons, was asked by a reporter of the 
New York Tribune to give his opinion of the President's condi- 
tion. He replied that nothing had occurred within the preceding 
twenty-four hours to cause the alarm that some professed to feel. 
The rise in temperature and 
increase in pulse had oc- 
curred for several evenings, 
And both were natural at 
that time of day, even in a 
well person. He added, 
however, that the Presi- 
dent's condition would be 
more favorable, if these 
symptoms were absent al- 
together. There was noth- 
ing discouraging in the offi- 
cial bulletins, which he 
thought were scrupulously 
correct, as in the private 
intelligence sent him by the 
attending surgeons. He re- 
peated the assertion that he 
liad made from the begin- 
ning, that every hour that elapsed without more dangerous symp- 
toms, increased the patient's chances of recovery. 

The bulletins of the afternoon and evening were couched in the 
usual language: but it was evident, on critical examination of the 
figures, that the construction put by the surgeons upon them, was 
hardly justified by the facts. The reports said : 

" 1 p. M. — The President is passing a comfortable day. Pulse, 100; 
temperature, 100.8; respiration, 24. 7 p. M.— Pul^e, 104; temperature, 
102.4; respiration, 24." 




SURGEON-GENERAL J. K. BARNES. 



548 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

The twelfth day. — During the second week of the President's 
prostration the public mind settled down to the expectation 
of a long, tedious illness. The suspense of the first few days 
had passed — as such things always pass — and people came to 
understand that they must wait until the silent forces of nat- 
ure should restore, if they ever could restore, the wounded 
Chief Magistrate to health. The Wednesday morning bulletin 
was of the most cheering kind — more so, for once, than was 
expressed in the words of the surgeons : 

" 8 : 30 A. M. — The President is doing well this morning. Pulse, 90 ; tem- 
perature, 98.5 ; respiration, 20. His gradual progress toward recovery is 
manifest, and thus far without serious complication." 

The temperature of the President's room had now been 
completely mastered by artificial means. The degree finally 
decided on as most favorable to the patient was 81° Fahrenheit. 
About 10,000 cubic feet of fresh air was forced into the room 
each hour, and this great volume making its escape through 
the open windows carried away all odors and impurities. 
The President's wound was now in full process of suppuration. 
This became a heavy drain upon his constitutional and re- 
served forces, and his strength was rapidly depleted. He grew 
worse — unable to move his body or even his limbs without 
great exertion. At intervals, moreover, the stomach refused 
to perform its functions, and there was, in consequence, instant 
anxiety on the question of keeping life in the President until 
he could get well. The fluid food, upon which only, he was 
nourished, neither satisfied the longings of nature nor fur- 
nished sufficient aliment to sustain the flagging powers of life. 
Moreover, at this epoch began the great blunder in the President's 
treatment. Owing to the mistaken diagnosis of the surgeons the 
course of the ball had been altogether misjudged. According 
to the theory of the physicians the ball had gone forward 
and downward. As soon as the wound began to suppurate 
it was found desirable to insert therein a drainage tube to the 
end that the discharge might be perfectly free. This tube — 



SHOT DOWN.— THE MISTAKEN DIAGNOSIS. 



549 



tliougli pliiiblo — was, in the process of iuserticni, constantly so 
manipulated by the surgeons as to carry it forward and down- 
ward in the supposed track of the ball, rather than liorizon- 
tally to the left, in the real course of the ball. It thus came 
to pass that the natural tendency of the pus, making its way 
to the external opening 
of the wound to sink into 
the tissues before reaching 
the wound, was augment- 
ed by the erroneous theory 
and manipulation of the 
surgeons. Having once 
started an opening down- 
ward through the tissues, 
this was immediately 
filled with pus, and into 
this pscudo wound, at 
each insertion in the path 
of the burrowing pus, the 
physician's tube was 
thrust further and fur- 
ther. This mistake — al- 
beit unforeseen and pos- 
sibly undiscoverable— was 
the rock on which all 

hope of recovery was ultimately shivered. The noonday and 
evenins: bulletins came at the appointed hours and were as 
follows : 

<<1p m —The President's condition continues favorable. Pulse, 94; 
temperature, lOO.G; respiration, 22. 7 P. M.-The Provident luus had 
less fever this afternoon than either yesterday or the day before. He 
continues slowly to improve.. Pulse, 100; temperature, 101. G; respira- 
tion, 24." 

The large and not very reputable army of bnsybodics now 
made a great discovery. It was the great question of the 




PR. J. J. WOODWARD. 



y 



550 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

President's "disability'' to be President any longer. Certainly 
he was wounded, stricken down, lying at death's door. He 
was disabled; there was no doubt of that. The Constitution 
indicates disability of the President as one of the eoutinoreu- 
cies under which the Vice-President shall discharare the duties 
of the presidency. But was President Gaiiield disabled in the 
sense contemplated by the framers of the Constitution ? Does 
that kind of prostration of the bodily powers, in which there 
is still a prospect of recovery, which loaves the ^ill free to 
act, and the mental powers unimpaired, really involve disability? 
These were the questions which now came up for public dis- 
cussion. However thev might or should be decided as abstract 
questions of constitutional construction, certain it is that, as a 
practical issue, there was quite a universal judgment that, as 
yet, President Garfield was not ''disabled" in the sense of the 
Constitution. Such was the temper of the people, moreover, 
that thev would not have patiently brooked any real effort to 
make the Vice-President actins: Chief Mao:istrate of the Xation. 
The thirteenth day. — Thursday, July 14th, was a quiet day at 
the White House, and a like quiet was gradually diffused 
through the country. The President was reported as having 
gained a little strength — a very desirable thing. The unoffi- 
cial accounts from the sick chamber were more than usually 
encouraging. The reports of the President's condition occu- 
pied a less conspicuous place in the papers of the day, and 
there was less popular discussion. The morning bulletin said: 

"8:30 A. M. — The President has passed a comfortable night and con- 
tinues to do well. Pulse, 90; temperature, 99.8; respiration, 22." 

Hardly second in interest to the resfular bulletins were the 
dispatches constantly arriving from foreign powers, expressing 
either some hope of recovery or asking for the latest news. 
On this day, the Secretary of State received the following tele- 
gram from Mr. Lowell : 

" Blaixe, Secretary, Washington : 

"I have received the following from the Queen: 'I Avish to express 



SHOT DOWN.— SYMPATHY ABROAD. 



551 



my great satisfaction at the very favorable accounts of the President, 
and hope that he will soon be considered out of danger.' 

" LoAVELL, Minister, London." 

The Japanese Minister also handed to the Secretary of 
State a telegraphic coninuniication which he received from his 
Government, of which the following is a copy : 

" YosHiDA, Japanese Minister, Washington: 

"His Majesty Avas greatly rejoiced to receive your dispatch announc- 
hig the steady recovery of the President, and commands you to present 
his hearty congratulations. 

" MooYENO, Acting Minister Foreign Affairs, Tokio." 



During the day Senator 
Conkling, of whose atti- 
tude towards the Admin- 
istration so much had been 
recently said, again visited 
Washincrfon. In the even- 
ing he called at the Ex- 
ecutive Mansion and hand- 
ed the usher his card for 
Mrs. Garfield. He said he 
did not wish to disturb her, 
l)ut desired that his sym- 
pathies might be made 
known to her, as well as 
his gratification that the 
President was recovering 
from his wounds. 

The afternoon and even 
ing bulletins were duly 

issued, and gave the following account of the 
progress : 

''1 p. M.— The progress of the President's condition continues to he 
satisfactory this morning. Pulse, 94; temperature, DS.o ; respiration, 22. 



/" 




DR. ROBERT REVB0RN. 



r resident's 



" 552 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

7. p. M. — The febrile rise this afternoon has been less pronounced, and 
has not caused the President so much discomfort. His general condi- 
tion is good. Pulse, 98; temperature, 101; respiration, 23." 

The interpretation put by the surgeons upon these reports, 
and generally — though not universally — accepted by medical 
men, was that the so-called " surgical fever," that is, a certain 
exacerbation of bodily temperature always noticeable in per- 
sons recovering from physical injury, had passed its crisis and 
would soon disappear. This belief was strengthened during 
the day by the presence of perspiration and other concomitants 
of a waning fever. 

For the first time in five days the patient's temperature fell 
to the normal degree (98.6°). A new drainage pipe of rubber 
was inserted into the wound to a greater depth than the orig- 
inal pipe had reached. * The President was able to move 
his limbs more easily than heretofore, and in other ways mani- 
fested his improvement. He asked more frequently about 
public affiiirs, and his curiosity was gratified in matters which 
would not produce excitement. • 

Thus day by day the battle went on between the recuper- 
ative forces of nature and the destructive agency of a dreadful 
wound. 

Tlie fourteenth day. — The iraproveraent in the President's condi- 
tion, first distinctly manifested about the beginning of this week, 
was now more marked than hitherto. The patient took food with 
relish. The wound showed signs of healing. The febrile symp- 
toms during most of the day were wholly wanting. Taken all in 
all there was a distinct progress toward recovery. The morning 
bulletin said: 

" 8:30 a. m. — The President has rested well during the night, is doing 
admirably this morning, and takes his food with relish. Pulse, 90; tem- 
perature, 98.5; respiration, 18." 

* Here again was the fatal mistake. Day after day the burrowing pus was aided 
on its way downward among the tissues by the disturbing drainage tubes of the 
surgeons. 



SHOT DOWN.— FAYOEABLE REPORTS. " -053 

The physicians, on the strengtli of these indications, ilecku'cd in 
unofficial conversation that the progress of their distinguished 
patient toward recovery could not be more satisfactory. So l)oth 
surgeons and people fell to the discussion of minor topics instead 
of the great question of life or death. One question about Avhicii 
all were specially curious was the location of the ball in the Presi- 
dent's bodv. Several electricians thought to determirie this matter 
by a new application of scientific principles. It was suggested that 
the deflection of an electric needle, when brought near to the ball, 
could be used as an index of the exact spot wdiere the missile was 
hidden. Professor Bell, of New York, was specially confident of 
success by this method. He was firm in the belief that, by the ap- 
plication of Hughes's induction balance to the surface of the Presi- 
dent's body, he would be able to mark definitely the spot where the 
ball lay imbedded. The attending surgeons gave their consent that 
the attempt might be made, and it was agreed that as soon as 
Professor Bell had completed some modifications in the instrument, 
and some experimental tests for the discovery of leaden balls under 
similar conditions, the trial should be made. 

The afternoon and evening bulletins of the fourteenth day were 
of the most encouraging purport: 

"1 p. M. The President continues to do very well this moriiing. 

Pulse, 94; temperature, 98.5; respiration, 18. 7 p. m.— The President 
has continued to do well during the day. The afternoon fever has been 
slighter than on any day since the 3d. Pulse, 98; temperature, 100.4; 
respiration. 20." 

There was, at this epoch in the history of President Cxarfield's 
case, a good deal of monotony. The regular re])orts were in a 
measure duplicates of each other, and the unofficial accounts wln.-h 
were sent out by the newspaper correspondents were not charac- 
terized by the sensational quality which marked the .arly np..rt< 
of the tragedy. The people, moreover— and with good reason- 
grew somewhat suspicious of startling dispatches, for it was found 
that the stock jobbers of New York City were n..t unwilling to use 
the President's condition as a basis of speculation. \\ ith sorr.»w 



554 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

and mortification it was discovered that there were men so lost to 
the sense of shame as to wager fictitious shares against the hopes 
of the Nation and to speculate on a manufactured death-rattle in 
the throat of the Republic ! 

The fifteenth day. — From the beginning of the healing of the 
President's wound, the surgeons had been more or less apprehen- 
sive that the blood of their patient would be poisoned by the ab- 
sorption of purulent matter, and his life be thereby imperiled. 
There are two secondary diseases thus likely to arise from the 
presence of a wound in the body — pyaemia and septicaemia. The 
first of these is by far the most to be dreaded. The malady re- 
sults from the absorption of the poisonous pus corpuscles into the 
circulation Avith the consequent horrors of rigors and burning 
fever. The latter disease, septicaemia, is a less fearful complication, 
resulting from the absorption of the fluid ichor peculiar to healing 
wounds and the infection of the blood thereby. Both of these ills 
were to be feared in the case of the President. Day by day went 
by, however, and the dreaded symptoms did not appear. The bul- 
letins of the 16th of July were of a sort to indicate that blood poi- 
soning was hardly to be apprehended. The reports said: 

"8:30 A. M. — The President has passed another good night, and is 
steadily progressing toward convalescence. Pulse, 90; temperature, 
98.5 ; respiration, 18. 7 p. m. — The President has passed a better day 
than any since he was hurt. The afternoon fever is still less than yester- 
day. His pulse is now 98; temperature, 100.2; respiration, 19." 

In view of the favorable progress of the President's case the sur- 
geons decided, for the time, to issue bulletins only in the morning 
and evening, thus dispensing with the noonday report. 

One of the most interesting episodes in connection with the as- 
sassination of the President was the raising of a ftind for the sup- 
port of his family. The enterprise was proposed by Cyrus W. 
Field of New York, who headed the subscription with $25,000. 
The flmd was for Mrs. Garfield, and was to be hers absolutely in- 
dependent of any contingencies. It was proposed that any and all 
who felt disposed should add to the sum until the amount contem- 



>j^^ 



SHOT DOWN.— THE MRS. GARFIELD FUND. 555 ^ 

plated was secured. Then it was designed to invest the wholf in 
Mrs. Garfield's name, the interest to go to her and her family in 
perpetuity. Nothwithstanding the strong hopes which M'ere enter- 
tained of the President's recovery, the subscription was rapidly 
augmented until, before the President's death, the sum had reached 
more than $300,000. After the tragedy was ended the trustees 
having the fund in charge invested $275,000 of the amount in four 
per cent. Government bonds, placing the whole to Mrs. Garfield's 
credit. It was thus that the American people, of their own accord, 
made provision for the wife and children of the great citizen who 
had never found time to get riches. 

The sixteenth day. — The news on this day opened with the 
cheering information that the President was now permitted to 
order his own meals, and that he was making good use of the 
privilege. The day at Washington was one of the least ex- 
citino- in the whole course of the President's illness. The fu- 
ture was freely discussed — how soon the wounded Chief Mag- 
istrate might go abroad and what measures should be adopted 
for his more rapid restoration to health. The morning and 
evening bulletins w^ere almost a mere matter of form: 

"8: 30 A, M.— The President continues to improve. He passed an ex- 
cellent night and has a good appetite. This morning, pulse, 90 ; tem- 
perature, 98.4; respiration, 18. 7 p. m.— Our expectations of favorable 
progress have been fully realized by the manner iu which the President 
has passed the day. He has taken more solid food and with greater rel- 
ish than hitherto, and his afternoon fever, which is as slight as that of 
yesterday, came on later. His pulse is 98; temperature, 100.2; respira- 
tion, 20." 

The informal reports of the day showed, from the conversa- 
tions of the surgeons, that they were still in some measure 
under the delusion that the ball had passed through the Presi- 
dent's body and was imbedded in tlie anterior wall, in a posi- 
tion of easy removal in the future. 

The seventeenth f^rt*/.— This Avas similar to the day l)efore. 
Notwithstanding the febrile rise of the preceding evening, the 



556 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFTELD. 

President was reported as having passed a restful night. In the 
morning he had a friendly altercation with the doctors, he con- 
tending that he might smoke a cigar and they refusing. He was 
cheerful, confident, and strong in the faith that he was on the way 
leading to recovery. The symptoms had a reassuring complexion 
in the general view and to the immediate attendants. The Presi- 
dent felt that he was better, and he said so. There was no ques- 
tion about his fever ; that showed for itself; but it did not lead to 
serious apprehension. Improvement in his condition was what 
the people wanted to hear about, and they did not expect any 
thing else. The great majority had determined upon not hearing 
any thing contrary to their hopes, and this feeling was participated 
in by the public press. Under these conditions it is not surpris- 
ing that the physicians, Avho knew just how the popular heart was 
throbbing, made extraordinary effort to respond to its require- 
ments. No one accuses them of deception. No one believes they 
were actuated by any but the best motives in their examinations 
and reports. Admitting that a portion of their theory was wrong, 
who will contend that a better theory could have resulted from the 
examination of any equivalent number of physicians and surgeons? 
This question has been widely discussed, without finding a conclu- 
sion in anywise discreditable to the corps of eminent scientists who 
ministered to the sufferings of President Garfield. 

The physicians explained to the public that the present feverish- 
ness of the patient had arisen from his recent over-eating of solid 
food. The more thoughtful, however, who had carefully scanned 
the reports for the last few days, were not satisfied, and awaited 
the morning bulletin with a little fear. The report ran thus: 

"8:30 A. M. — The President has passed another comfortable night and 
is doing well this morning; pulse, 88; temperature, 98.4; respiration, 18." 

This Avas reassuring ; so the people took up the subject of the 
thanksgiving which had been proposed by Governor Charles 
Foster, of Ohio. During the day a letter was published 
from Hon. O. M. Roberts, Governor of Texas, giving his 
hearty approval of what Governor Foster had proposed. An 



SHOT DOWN.— SUPPOSED CONVALESCENCE. -"i-")' 

interesting conversation with Dr. Bliss was also reported for 
the Eastern press, in the course of which he declared that 
the President's wound was in the healino; staije, and that the 
track of the ball was slowly hut surely clearing by the processes 
of nature. The evening bulletin, however, was not as fair as 
had been hoped. It said : 

" 7 r. M. — The President has had a litde more fever this afternoon, 
which is regarded as merely a temporary fluctuation. x\t 1 i'. M. his 
pulse Avas 98; temperature, 98.5; respiration, 18. At present his pulse 
is. 102; temperature, 100.7; respiration, 21." 

The eighteenth day. — Something has ah-eady been said of the 
Huo-hes Induction balance with which Professor P>ell was to 
discover the position of the ball in the President's body. The 
preliminary experiments had been continued, and the electri- 
cians had strong hopes of success, but the test had not yet been 
made. The press reports of the day were largely devoted to 
descriptions of the delicate apparatus which Avas to enable the 
scientists to determine the exact location of the ball. The 
great difficulty in the way was the non-susceptibility of lead 
to the inductive effect of electricity. Professor Bell and his 
co-electricians were, however, quite confident that this obstacle 
could be overcome and the position of the ball determined. Tlie 
two bulletins of July 19th were as follows: 

"8:80 A. M.— The President has passed a very good night, and this 
morning he is free from fever, and expresses himself as feeling quite 
comfortable. Pulse, 90; temperature, 98.5; respiration, 18. 7 v. m.— 
The President has passed an excellent day, and the afternoon fever has 
been less than on anv day since he was wounded. At 1 v. M. ins pulse 
wa.s 92 ; temperature, 98.5 ; respiration, 19. At present Ids pulse id 96; 
temperature, 99.8 ; respiration, 19." 

The nineteenth (%.— The reports, both official and unofficuu, 
were of a sort to justify a belief in the early eonvalescence ot 
the President— if indeed convalescence had not already super- 
vened. The fever was so slight as to be scarcely any longer 



-' 558 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

noticeable. The President's appetite and spirits were of a sort 
to suggest immediate recovery. It was said by the attending 
surgeons on the 20th of July, that the wounded man had 
passed his best day since his injury was received. He w^as still 
represented as weak and weary from lying so long in bed. He 
was looking forward eagerly to the time when he could take 
the trip upon the Potomac, and possibly a sea voyage, which 
had been promised him by the middle of August, if he should 
continue to improve. Arrangements were already made so 
that the trip might be as safe and comfortable as possible. 

The Tallapoosa, a United States steamer, underwent repairs 
and was made ready for service. The Secretary of the Navy 
issued orders to put additional men at work upon her, so that 
she might be ready to sail at any time after the 15th of August. 

The bulletins of the surgeons were issued as usual, morning 
and evening. They said : 

"8:30 A. M. — The progress of the President toward recovery contin- 
ues uninterruptedly. He has passed another quiet night. Pulse this 
morning 86; temperature, 98.4; respiration, 18. 7 p. m.— The Presi- 
dent has passed an excellent day. At 1 p. m. his pulse was 88 ; tem- 
perature, 98.4; respiration, 18. At the present time his pulse is 98; 
temperature, 99.6; respiration, 19." 

The twentieth day. — The physicians were unwilhngto say that 
their patient was out of danger, but they permitted the attend- 
ants to think so, and the people accepted it as true. At the 
morning dressing of the wound a discovery was made. It was 
found that some of the clothing had entered the wound with 
the bullet. There came away, spontaneously with the pus, from 
the deeper part of the wound, what the surgeons called a 
" morsel of clothing," about one-quarter of an inch square. Upon 
being examined under the microscope by Dr. Woodward, it was 
found to consist chiefly of cotton fibers, with a few woolen 
fibers adhering. It was a portion of the President's shirt, with 
a few fibers of wool from the coat. 

The two bulletins of the day were brief but satisfactory: 



SHOT DOWN.— BAD NEWS. 659 X 

" 8 : 30 A. M. — The President has had a good night and is doing excel- 
lently. This morning, pulse, 88; temperature, 98.4; respiration, 18. 
7 P. M. — The President has had another good day. At 1 r. yi. his pulse 
was 92; temperature, 98.4; respiration, 19. At 7 p. m., pulse, 96; tem- 
perature, 99.9 ; i-espiration, 19." 

For some time past the consulting surgeons bad not been 
called to tbe President's bedside, but daily reports were made 
to them by the physicians in charge. These reports, however, 
were but a more extended statement of the facts contained in 
the official bulletins, and generally added nothing in the way of 
information. 

The twenty-first day. — The recovery of the President was now 
generally believed to be assured. The surgeons gave it as their 
opinion that about the only danger to be apprehended was the 
prolonged suppuration of the wound. Under the influence of 
this drain the President was wasting from day to day, and the 
amount of food which he was able to take was hardly suffi- 
cient to supply the waste. Nevertheless he hold up well under 
this exhaustive process, and although greatly reduced in flesh 
and strength, his vital energies did not as yet seem to be seri- 
ously impaired. Almost the only item of news which came 
from the White House was the somewhat monotonous bulle- 
tins, which said: 



^> 



"8:30 A. M. — The President rested well during the night and is quite 
easy this morning. Pulse, 88; temperature, 98.4; respiration, 17. 
7:30 p. M.— The progress of the President's case continues without ma- 
terial change. At 1 P. M. his pulse was 98; temperature, 98.4; respi- 
ration, 18. At 7 p. M., pulse, 98; temperature, 100.2; respiration, 19." 

The twenty-second ^?«?/.— Bad news ! The President was worse. 
The morning bulletin did not appear. At first this faet crea- 
ted no anxiety, but soon there was alarm. At tea (/cloek a 
bulletin was posted by the surgeons, which said: 

" 10 A. M.— The President was more restless last night; hut this morn- 
ing at 7 A. M., while preparations were made to drc<.s his wound, his 



if 

560 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

temperature was found to be normal; pulse, 92; temperature, 98.4; 
respiration, 19. At 7: 30 he had a slight rigor, in consequence of which 
the dressing of his wound was postponed. Reaction followed promptly, 
and the dressing has just now been completed. At present his pulse is 
110; temperature, 101; respiration, 24." 

"Rigor" was a bad word. Physicians understood it to por- 
tend blood poisoning. It was remembered, moreover, by the 
attendants that for the last two days the President had com- 
plained of a sense of great fatigue. The symptoms were well 
calculated to inspire a fear that the dread pyaemia had made 
its appearance. The consulting surgeons were immediately 
sent for. At half-past eleven the President had another chill, 
and the news given to the people in the afternoon papers was 
of a kind to create the most serious apprehensions. The even- 
ing bulletin was awaited with the utmost anxiety. In the 
towns and cities crowds tilled the streets as had happened three 
weeks before when the news came of the assassination. At 
seven o'clock the bulletin came as follows : 

" 7 p. M. — After the bulletin of 10 A. M. the President's fever contin- 
ued. At 11:30 A. M. he again had a slight rigor, and his temperature 
subsequently rose, until, at 12: 30 p. m. it was 104, with pulse 125, res- 
piration, 26. Between this time and 1 P. M. perspiration made its ap- 
pearance, and the temperature began to fall gradually. It is now 101.7; 
pulse, 118; respiration, 25." 

Soon after this bulletin was made public, Drs. Agnew and 
Hamilton reached Washington, but it was thought not best to 
disturb tlie President furtlier, and so no consultation was held 
until the morrow. 

The twenty-thhd day. — This was an anxious day in Washington 
and throughout the country. With the coming of morning it was 
learned that during the night the President had had another chill. 
It also transpired that at the evening dressing of the Avound, the 
physicians discovered in the region below where the ball had en- 
tered, a pus sac, that is, an accumulation of purulent matter in a 
cavity inclosed in the tissues of the back. At nine o'clock there 



SHOT DOWN.— A SURGICAL OPERATION. 



561 



was an examination by the attending and consulting surgeon.s, 
an an operation was deterniined upon. An ineision was accord- 
ingly made about two inches in lent^th, an incii and a lialf in 
depth, reaching down 
to the bottom of the 
cavity or sac. It was 
about three inches be- 
low the wound and 
farther back toward 
the spine. A large 
drainage tube was in- 
serted, and in the after- 




noon, when the wound 
Avas again dressed, it 
was found that the pus 
was escaping from the 
tube and not from the 
oltl wound at all. 

In making this arti- 
i,i:il opening some 
\vUh.AnOi t'a r t h e r discoveries 
SCENE IN THE suK ( iiAMiiii. wcrc madc regard- 

ing the character of the wouikI. It was fonn.l that tlie 
eleventh rib hail suffered a compound fra.-turc. l)eing 
broken in two places. The piece of bone thus displaced 
3''. 



i7^ 

X 562 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD, 

was driven inwards from its natural position. Tliis the sur- 
geons restored to its place, and it was decided that in a few 
days the old opening, where the ball had entered, should be al- 
lowed to heal, leaving only the orifice made by the surgeons. 
During the operation the President displayed his usual cour- 
age. He neither flinched nor moved, though nothing was 
given him in the nature of an anesthetic. Probes were thrust 
down through the old wound to the bottom of the pocket, and 
against these probes the surgeons cut their way to the lower 
end of the sac. The operation thus performed was in every 
way successful. The beneficial effects were immediately appar- 
ent in an improved condition of the sufferer. The bulletin is- 
sued by the surgeons in the evening was as follows : 

"7 p. M.— The President has been much relieved by the operation of 
this morning, and the pus has been discharging satisfactorily through tlie 
new opening. At noon to-day his pulse was 118; temperature, 99.8; 
respiration, 24. At present his pulse is 104; temperature, 99.2; respi- 
ration, 23." 

The unofficial conversations of the surgeons with reporters and 
others was to the effect that, taken all in all, the prospects for the 
President's ultimate recovery were not lessened by the events of 
the last two days. 

The twenty-fourth day. — The news was somewhat reassuring. 
There had been no very marked change in the President's condi- 
tion, either for better or worse. But he had passed a compara- 
tively comfortable night, sleeping at intervals, and suffering no 
recurrence of the chill. The operation performed had entailed no 
serious consequence, and the outlook again began to be hopeful. 
The surgeon's bulletins were of a sort to cheer rather than dis- 
courage. Thev said : 

"8: 30 A. M.— The President has passed a more comfortable night, and 
has had no rigor since that reported in the bulletin of yesterday morning. 
He is doing well this morning. Pulse, 96; temperature, 98.4; respira- 
tion, 18. 7 p. M. — The President has done well during the day. His 
afternoon fever did not come on until after three o'clock. It is some- 



'Z 



SHOT DOWN.— SENSATIONAL DISPATCHES. 563 

what higher than yesterday, but tliere has been no chill. At noon hi.s 
pulse was 104; temperature, 98.4; respiration, 20. At 7 P. M. his pulse 
was 110; temperature, 101; respiration, 24." 

The atteudauts upon the President who were often at the bedside, 
and had every opportunity of judging of the general course of the 
case, and also the members of the Cabinet, reiterated in many in- 
formal conversations the views expressed officially by the surgeons 
in charge. None the less, to one who could read between the lines 
and could not be blown hot or cold with everv rumor, it was 
clear, even from the surgeons' bulletins, that the recovery of the 
President was still problematical. 

The Ucenty-jijth day. — The reports for Tuesday, July 2Gth, showed 
that the President was gaining ground, and that he had in a good 
measure realized the relief hoped for from the operation of the 
previous Sunday. This belief was plainly present in the dispatch 
of the cool-headed Mr. Blaine. He said : 

"Lowell, Minider, London: 

"At 11 o'clock p. M. the President's physicians report temperature and 
respiration normal, and pulse, 96 — best report at same hour for five 
nights. The entire day has been most encouraging, and a feeling of con- 
fidence is rapidly returning. " Blaine, Secretary." 

This dispatch of the Secretary of State was, of course, based upon 
the official bulletins of the surgeons, who said in their reports for 
the day: 

" 8 : 30 A. M.— The President was somewhat restless during the night, 
and the fever which had sul)sided after the last bulletin rose again al)out 
midnight, and continued till three o'clock, after which it again subsi.led. 
He is now about as well as yesterday at the same hour. Pulse, 102 ; 
temperature, 98.4; respiration, 18. 7 r. M.— The President has done 
well during the day. At noon his pulse was 106; temperature, 98.4; 
respiration, 19. At 7 p. m. pulse, 104; temperature, 100.7; re.«pirati..n, 
22." 

One of the distressing features of the times was the presence 
in Washington of great numbers of irresi)onsil)le newspaper cor- 
respondents who shamed their profession by th.- publi.-ation of 



)C 564 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

whatever came uppermost. The Capital appeared to be at the 
mercy of sensational rumor-mongers, and they made the most of 
their opportunity. According to them, the doctors had said that 
the President would not live an hour ; mortification had set in ; an 
important surgical operation had been necessary, and the result 
had been unsatisfactory ; the surgeons refused to give any infor- 
mation concerning it or the President's condition ; it had been de- 
cided by the surgeons that an attempt must at once be made to 
find and extract the bullet as a last desperate effort to save the 
President's life ; the flag on the building occupied by the Depart- 
ment of Justice was at half-mast, as a sign of the President's 
death, etc. 

The twenty-sixth day. — There could be no doubt that the reports 
of the 27th indicated a marked improvement in the President's 
condition. He continued all day without fever. The bulletins 
were unequivocal : 

"8 A. M. — The President slept sweetly last night from about 8 p. m. 
to 5 A. M., Avith but a slight break of short duration at 11 P. M. There 
have been no rigors. He takes his nourishment well, and his general 
condition is improving. He expresses himself as feeling better and more 
rested. Pulse, 94; temperature, 98.4; respiration, 18. 12:30 p. m. — 
Tiie President's wound was dressed just after the morning bulletin was 
issued. Since then he has rested quietly, and takes his nourishment 
readily and without gastric disturbance. At present his pulse is 90 ; 
temperature, 98.4; respiration, 18. 7 p, M. — The President is still rest- 
ing quietly. He has been able to taiie more nourishment to-day than 
for several days past, and, up to the present hour, has had no febrile rise 
of temperature. His wound has just been dressed. It looks well, and 
has continued to discharge healthy pus in sufficient quantity during the 
day. His pulse is now 95; temperature, 98.5; respiration, 20." 

The news sent abroad by Secretary Blaine to Minister Lowell 
was of the same tenor. The dispatch said : 

" Lowell, 3Iinister, London. 

"At 11 o'clock p. M. the President's physicians gave a most favorable 
account of his condition. There is a conspicuous improvement in his 



SHOT DOWN.— CHANGE OF EOOMS. 565 H 

digestion and iu the restfulness of his sleep. We are by no means re- 
lieved from anxiety, but are growing more hopeful. 

"Blaine, Secretary" 

In a conversation during the day, Dr. Bliss, referring to the out- 
look, said: "There is only one more danger to be apprehended in 
the President's case. That danger is pyiemia, and it is not likely 
to occur for a long time ; and we are extremely confident, almost 
certain, that it will not occur at all. The President is doing very, 
very well. We could not hope to have him do better. His sleep 
last night was the best that he has had since he was wounded." 

The twenty-seventh day. — The incident of the day was the re- 
moval of the President from his room, in order that the apart- 
ment might be thoroughly cleaned and aired. The removal was 
effected without difficulty, and the President remained in the 
adjacent room until five o'clock in the afternoon, when he was 
quietly returned to his own chamber. He greatly enjoyed the 
slight change of scene thus afforded, and was much pleased with 
the maneuver by which his room had been brought to order. His 
spirits were revived not a little, and an improvement in his appe- 
tite was again thankfully noted. The official bulletins of the day 
were as follows: 

"8 A. M.— The President rested well during the night, and no rigor 
or febrile disturbance has occurred since the bulletin of yesterday even- 
ing. This morning the improvement of his general condition is distinctly 
l^erceptible. He appears refreshed by his night's rest, and expresses him- 
self cheerfully as to his condition. Pulse, 92; temperature, 98.4: re.^jii- 
ration, 18. 12: 20 p. m.— The President bore the dressing of his ^yound 
this morning with less fatigue than hitherto. It appears well and is dis- 
charging sufficiently. His pulse is now 94; temperature, 98.5; respira- 
tion, 18. 7 P. M.— Tlie President has passed a pleasant day, and has 
taken his nourishment with apparent relish. His temperature continued 
normal until about 5 o'clock, when a moderate afternoon riso occurred, 
which, however, gives the patient but slight discomfort, and causes no 
anxiety. At present bis pulse is 104; temperature, lOO.o; respira- 
tion, 20." 

During the day a sensational report was started to the effect tliat 



5G6 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

Dr. Agnew — in whose skill as a surgeon the people had come to 
have the greatest confidence — had said that the President's life 
could not be saved unless the ball was excised at an early day. 
This rumor, however, was promptly denied, as were also some 
alleged unfavorable remarks of Dr. Hamilton. About this time, 
however, some eminent surgeons — notably Dr. Hammond, of New 
York City — began to express, and even to publish, very serious 
strictures upon the views and treatment adopted by the attending 
and consulting physicians of the President; and, in some instances, 
the reasoning of the critics seemed to be so well borne out by the 
facts as to put the medical and surgical skill of those who managed 
the President's case to a very hard strain. 

The twenty-eighth day. — On the 29th of July a Cabinet meeting, 
at which all the members except Attorney-General Mac Veagli were 
present, was held at the White House. Public matters were dis- 
cussed, and certain routine official business disposed of in the usual 
way. All this indicated a belief, on the part of the members, that 
the President was on the road to recovery. There was, however, 
no marked change in his condition or prospects. He had passed 
a comfortable night — so said the attendants — and the afternoon 
fever was less pronounced than on the previous day. The three 
bulletins of the surgeons contained about the only information 
which could be obtained of the progress of the distinguished pa- 
tient. They were as follows: 

" 8 : 30 A. M. — Immediately after the evening dressing yesterday the 
President's afternoon fever began gradually to subside. He slept well 
during the night, and this morning is free from fever, looks well, and 
expresses himself cheerfully. A moderate rise of temperature in the 
afternoon is to be anticipated for some days to come. At present his 
pulse is 92; temperature, 98.4; respiration, 18. 2 :30 p. m.— The Presi- 
dent bore the dressing of his wound well this morning, and exhibited 
very little fatigue after its completion. He rests well, and takes an ade- 
quate quantity of nourishment. At present his pulse is 98 ; tempera- 
ture, 98.4; respiration, 19. 7 p. m. — The President has been comforta- 
ble and cheerful during the day, and has had quite a nap since the noon 
bulletin was issued. At present his pulse is 98 ; te;nperature, 100 ; res- 
piration, 20." 



SHOT DOWN.— MALARIA. 567 

To these reports very little can bo added for the day, except 
the confirmation of their substance in the evening despatch of 
Secretary Blaine, which was as follows : 
"Lowell, Minister, London: 

" The President's afternoon fever was less to-day than yesterday, and 
at this hour — half-past 11 p. m. — has almost disaj^jjcared. Temperature 
very nearly normal. His wound is in a healthy condition, and he is 
doing well in all respects. His physicians are greatly encouraged. 

" Blaine, Secretary." 

The twenty -ninth day. — With the morning of the 30th of July 
came the report of a farther — though slight — improvement in the 
President's condition. He W'as said to have waked early in the 
morning after a refreshing sleep. He showed no fatigue from the 
dressing of the wound in the course of the forenoon, and ate with 
relish a moderate quantity of solid food. He was able, with the 
aid of a contrivance placed under the mattress, partly to sit up in 
bed. The afternoon rise in temperature was moderate. Several 
times during the President's illness the question of malarious in- 
fluences about the White House, as affecting his prospects of re- 
covery, was discussed by the physicians and the general public. 
It was noticed that several of the employes had been taken sick 
in a way to indicate malaria in the surroundings. The condition 
of the Executive Mansion itself was reported as being unfavorable 
to health. So the question of removing the President to a more 
healthful place was again raised and seriously debated by the sur- 
geons. Dr. Bliss, who was a member of the AVashington Board 
of Health, which several years before, after a long .-struggle, had 
succeeded in having a large number of disease-breeding tene- 
ment-houses removed, was very emphatic in his condemnation 
of the "conveniences" of the White House, and said tlir iiimily 
of the President should be removed while enginc-ers shouhl 
overhaul and renovate the entire plumbing arrangements of the 

premises. 

Of course all possible means are taken to kceji th.< unhealthy 
influence arising from this condition of ailiiirs fn.ni tlu' sick-r.x.m 
of the President; and the closed doors, together with the .laborate 



'?^ 568 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

new ventilating apparatus, were believed to furnish ample pro- 
tection. 

Mr, Blaine, in his night dispatch to Minister Lowell, spoke 
encourao-incrlv of the situation, and the official bulletins were 
pitched in the usual hopeful key : 

"8:30 A. M. — The President enjoyed a refre?;hing sleep during the 
greater part of the night. A gradual improvemeut of his general condi- 
tion in all particulars is observable, and is recognized by himself His 
pulse is now 92; temperature, 98.5; respiration, 18. 12:30 p. m. — The 
President showed no fatigue from the dressing of his wound this morning. 
His general condition continues gradually to improve. A moderate 
quantity of solid food has been added to his nourishment, and was eaten 
with relish. At present Ins pulse is 98; temperature, 98.5 ; respiration, 
20. 7 p. M. — The President has i)assed the day comf n-tably and without 
drawback or unpleasant symptoms. The afternoon rise of temperature 
is moderate, and did not commence until about 5 o'clock. At present 
his pulse is 104; temperature, 100.2; respiration, 20." 

The thirtieth day. — The physicians again found time to discuss 
the location of the ball in the President's body. The majority had 
still held the opinion that the missile had passed through the peri- 
toneal cavity, and was lodged in the front wall of the abdomen. 
In a dispatch of the day, it was even alleged that the surgeons 
were now agreed in this opinion. 

It was believed that the black-and-blwe spot, Mhich had been 
visible on the right side of the abdomen for several days after the 
President received his injury, marked the bullet's location, and this 
theory was apparently confirmed by such results as had thus far 
been obtained with the induction balance. However this might 
be, it was said by the physicians, with much confidence, that the 
ball was, by this stage of progress, encysted, and that not much 
further trouble would or could arise from its presence in the body. 
The bulletins of the thirtieth day were as follows : 

"8:30 A. M. — The President slept well during the nigjit, and awoke 
refreshed this morning. His appearance and expression this morning 
indicate continued improvemeut. At present his pulse is 94 ; tempera- 



SHOT DOWN.— THE INDUCTION BALANCE. 569 X. 

ture, 98.4; respiration, 18. 12:30 v. u. — The President bore tlic morn- 
ing dressing of the wound without fatigue. It continues to look well and 
discharge adequately. The quantity of nourishment now taken daily is 
regarded as quite sufficient to support his system and favor the gradual 
increase in strength, which is plainly observable. At present his pulse 
is 100; temperatui'e, 98.5; respiration, 19, 7 r. M. — The President has 
passed an excellent day. The afternoon jise of temperature has been 
quite insignificant. At present his pulse is 104; ten}perature, 99; res- 
piration, 20." 

On this day it was announced that Professor Bell had com- 
pleted his instrument for determining the location of the hall. A 
description of the apparatus was given to the public, which, though 
couched in scicntilic language, may prove of interest to the general 
reader. The induced electrical current, and the interference there- 
with by the presence of a metallic body, were the fundamental 
facts of the invention. The instrument consisted of two circular 
primary coils of insulated copper three inches in diameter and 
half an inch in thickness, the one being constructed of Xo. 19 
wire, and containing between seven and eight ohms of resistance, 
forming the primary coil, and the other of No. 28 or 30 wire, 
giving more than eighty ohms of resistance, forming the secondary 
coil, the two being connected in separate metallic circuits. In the 
circuit with the former there was placed an electrical battery and a 
spring vibrator, the latter so adjusted as to make a very rapid series 
of " breaks " of the circuit, sending a hundred or more electrical 
pulsations over the circuit and around the primary coil of wire per 
second. A hand telephone only was placed in the circuit with the 
secondary coil. The batteries being connected, and the vibrator 
set in motion, the secondary coil was placed so as to cover the 
primary, and the operator having the telephone at his car, hears 
the pulsations of the primary current sent through the vibrator 
with each motion of its spring, an induced current being produced 
in the secondary coil by its contiguity with the primary. 

Up to this point the ground traversed had been familiar to all 
electricians for many years. Professor Bell's discovery, which nuulc 
the subject of special interest, consisted in the fact that if the 



T^^ff- 



■' 570 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

secondary coil be gradually turned to one side, so as to uncover a 
portion of its primary, the inductive effects and the resultant tone 
from the vibrator diminish until a point is reached, where only 
about one-third of the surface of the secondary coil remaining 
upon the primary coil, the sound-producing effect of the in- 
duction ceased altogether. If the secondary coil be moved be- 
yond the point of silence the sonorous results become immedi- 
ately apparent. 

At the point of silence it was discovered that that portion of 
the secondary, which still covered an equal portion of its primary, 
was very sensitive to the presence of metallic substances not con- 
nected in any way with the circuits of which the two coils formed 
a portion, disclosing their proximity by making again audible 
the sounds from the vibrator. The results obtained from this 
instrument were equal to those given by the Hughes balance, but 
the latter furnishing a more convenient form for general use, it 
was first adopted as the basis of experiments. 

Such was the instrument which the electricians completed, but 
would it work in practically discovering the place of the ball? 
It was determined that on the morrow the apparatus should be 
tested. 

The tkirty-jirst day. — Two things on this day occupied the public 
attention: First, the regular reports; and second, the experiments 
of Proffesor Bell. The bulletins were as follows : 

"8:30 A. M. — The President slept well during the night, and this 
morning is cheerful, and expresses himself as feeling better than at any 
time since he was hurt. He appears stronger, and has evidently made 
progress toward recovery during the last few days. His pulse is now 94; 
temperature, 98.4; respiration, 18. 12 : 30 p. M. — The President's wound 
continues to do well. At the morning dressing it was found to be in all 
respects in a satisfactory condition. At present his pulse is 100 ; tem- 
perature, 98.4; respiration, 19. 7 p. M. — The President has taken 
nourishment well and in sufficient quantity, and in all respects continues 
to do well. The rise of temperature this afternoon is slight. At present 
his pulse is 104; temperature, 99.5; respiration, 20." 

After the morning dressing of the President's wound, it was 






SHOT DOWN.— THE INDUCTION nALANCE. 571 X^ 

decided to make a formal trial of the induction apparatus for de- 
termining, if possible, the location of the fatal bullet. Professor 
Bell was accordingly brought, with his instrument, to the Presi- 
dent's bedside, and there conducted his experiments. Later in 
the day he wrote out and presented to the surgeons an official re- 
port of the results, as follows : 

" VoLTA Laboratory, 1,221, Connecticut Avenue, \ 
"Washington, August 1, 1881. j 

"To the Surgeons in atleitdance upon President Garfield: 

•' Gentlemen — I beg to submit for your iuformation a brief statement of the 
results obtained with the new form of induction balance in the experiments made 
this morning for tlie purpose of locating the bullet in the person of the President. 
Tlie instrument was tested for sensitiveness several times during the course of the 
experiments, and it was found to respond well to the presentation of a flattened 
bullet at a distance of about four inches from the coils. When the exploring coils 
were passed over that part of the abdomen where a sonorous spot was observed in 
the experiments made on July 2G, a feeble tone was perceived, but the efiect was 
audible a considerable distance around this spot. The sounds were too feeble to be 
entirely satisfactory, as I had reason to expect, from the extreme sensitiveness of the 
instrument, a much more marked effect. In order to ascertain whether similar 
sounds might not be obtained in other localities, I explored the whole right side 
and back below the point of entrance of the bullet, but no part gave indications of 
the presence of metal, except an area of about two inches in diameter, containing 
within it the spot previously found to be sonorous. Tlie experiments were repeated 
by Mr. Taintor, who obtained exactly corresponding results. We are therefore 
justified in concluding that the ball is located within the above-named area. In 
our preliminary experiments we found that a bullet like the one in question, when 
in its normal shape, produced no audible effect beyond a distance of two and a-lialf 
inches; while the same bullet, flattened and presented with its face parallel to the 
plane of the coils, gave indications up to a distance of five inches. The same flat- 
tened bullet, held with its face perpendicular to the plane of the coils, produced no 
sound beyond a distance of one inch. Tlie facts show that in ignorance of the 
actual shape and mode of presentation of the bullet to the exploring instrument, 
the deptli at which the bullet lies beneath the surface can not be determined from 
our experiments. I am, gentlemen, yours truly, 

".Vlexander Graham Bell."* 

. TJie thirty-second cZa?/.— Less space was given to-day in thr jmb- 
lic press to reports of the President's progress than on any previous 
«In the light of the discoveries made at the examination of the President's 
body, after death, it woul.l not appear that the In.luction Balance, viewed as an 
agent to determine the position of concealed balls of metal-espec.ally lend-iH 
an instrument calculated to improve the reputation of science or scienlilic men. 



»C 572 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

day since the assassination. An incident of the honr was the re- 
ception by Mrs. Garfiekl of a draft for a hundred pounds sterling, 
sent by the Disciples, of England, to aid in the reconstruction of 
the church in Washington where the President was in the habit 
of attending ^yorship. The reports for the day were of the same 
general tenor which they had borne since the surgical operation 
of the 25th July. The bulletins were as follo\ys : 

" 8 : 30 A. M. — The President passed a very pleasant night, and slept 
sweetly the greater part of the time. This morning he awoke refreshed, 
and appears comfortable and cheerful. Pulse, 94; temperature, 98.4; 
respiration, 18. 12:30 p. m. — The President is passing the day com- 
fortably. At the morning dressing his wound was found to be doing 
admirably. His pulse is now 99; temperature, 98.4; respiration, 19. 
7 p. M. — The President has continued to progress faN-^rably during the 
day, and appears perceptibly better in his general condition than yester- 
day, a more natural tone of voice being especially perceptible. At pres- 
ent his pulse is 104; temperature, 100; respiration, 20. 

The thirty-third day. — " President Garfield continues," says the 
New York Tribune, "to gain steadily. In a fortnight more, if all 
goes well with him, he will probably be able to sit up and give 
some attention to the business which awaits his action. He is still 
ycry weak, but when the healing process in his wound is well 
begun, he will, no doubt, gain strength rapidly." Such was the 
opinion of the country. The physicians in charge, and the attend- 
ants upon the President, all seemed to believe confidently in his 
early convalescence. The most noticeable change in his condition 
was the return of his voice to its wonted fullness and resonance. 
His attendants said that the change in this respect had been very 
marked as compared Avith three or four days previous. The quan- 
tity of morphine given by the physicians, in order to produce 
sound sleep, had now been reduced to one-eighth of a grain daiU', 
and the President was able to take more than the usual amount 
of nourishment, including beefsteak, milk, meat extract, toast sat- 
urated with beef juice, and a little coifee. His strength had in- 
creased, and he was able already to do more in the Avay of turning 



9 

SHOT DOWX.-HOPEFUL SURGEONS. 573 X 

himself in bed, aud helping others to raise his body, than the 
surgeons thought it prudent to allow. 

The bulletins of the day were in every way satisfactory and 
encouraging : 

8:30 A. M.— The President slept tranquilly the greater part of the 
night. This morning his temperature is normal, and his general coudi- 
tion is satisfactory. Another day of favorable progress is anticipated. 
At present his pulse is 90; temperature, 96.4; respiration, 18. 12:30 
p. M. — The President continues to progress steadily toward convales- 
cence. He has taken to-day an increased proportion of solid food. His 
wound is doing well, and his general condition is better than yesterday. 
At present his pulse is 100; temperature, 98.4; respiration, 19. 7 p. 
M. — The President has passed a very satisfactory day. The rise of tem- 
perature this afternoon is slight. At present his pulse is 102 ; tempera- 
ture, 99.4; respiration, 19. 

The proposed removal of the President from the WTiite House 
was again under discussion. It was decided, however, to do noth- 
ing definite in regard to such removal until he could himself be 
taken into the counsel of the physicians, and indicate his prefer- 
ence. Two plans had thus far been discussed : one to take him 
upon a naval vessel, and depart for any point upon the coast where 
the surroundings seemed to promise most for his physical improve- 
ment; the other, to take him to the Soldiers' Home, three miles 
from the White House, and keep him there until he should be 
able to make the journey by rail to Mentor, his Ohio home. 

Tlie thirty-fourth day. — Xo news of interest to-day. The space 
allotted in the newspapers to accounts of the progress and condi- 
tion of the President Avas still further reduced. In conversation 
about the President's c(mdition. Dr. Hamilton was reported to 
have discussed the situation quite freely, and expressed the opinion 
that President Garfield was advancing toward recovery in a very 
satisfactory manner. In reply to the direct question: "Do you 
think the President will recover?" the Doctor said: "I have no 
doubt whatever of his ultimate recovery." Dr. Hamilton also 
expressed the ojiinion that the're was no malaria in the patient's 



574 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

system. In response to interrogatories relative to moving the 
patient from the Executive Mansion, the doctor said that nothing 
could yet be determined, as the President was in no condition to 
be moved. He thought, however, when the proper time arriv^ed, 
that a trip down the Potomac would be decidedly beneficial, and 
would hasten his recoverv. 

In accordance with the custom which the physicians had now 
adopted, only two bulletins were issued during the day, and they 
were of a sort to create no excitement. 

" 8: 30 A. M. — The President continues to improve. He slept well dur- 
ing the night, and this morning looks and expresses himself cheerfully. 
Another satisfactory day is anticipated. At present his pulse is 90 ; tem- 
perature, 98.4; resj^iration, 18. 7 p. m. — As the morning bulletin indi- 
cated would probably be the case, the President has passed another good 
day without drawback or unpleasant symptoms of any kind. At 10:30 
p. M. his pulse was 96; temperature, 98.4; respiration, 18. The after- 
noon rise of temperature came on late and was moderate in degree. 
Now his pulse is 102; temperature, 100.2; respiration, 19." 

Thus from day to day, and from week to week, the time wore 
on, the people regarding it merely as a matter of- time when their 
beloved President would be restored to life and health. At this 
date they did not anticipate an alternative issue. 

The thirty-jifth day. — In the leading papers of August 5th, no 
more than a quarter of a column was devoted to President Gar- 
field. The citizens of Newport, Rhode Island, sent, through the 
mayor of the city, an invitation to the President to come to their 
famous resort as soon as his wound w^ould permit, and to remain 
as their guest until complete recovery. The bulletins of the day 
contained the only information. They said : 

"8:30 a. m. — The President slept naturally the greater part of the 
night, although he has taken no morphia during the last twenty-four 
hours. His improved condition warranted, several days ago, a diminu- 
tion in the quantity of morphia administered hypodermically at bed- 
time, and it was reduced at first to one-twelfth and afterward to one- 
sixteenth of a grain in the twenty-four hours, witliout aiiy consequent 
unpleasant result, and finally has been altogether dispensed Avith. His 



SHOT DOWN.— HOPEFUL INDICATIONS. 575 

condition this morning exhibits continued improvement, and another 
good day is anticipated. At present his pulse is 88; temperature, 08.4; 
respiration, 18. 7 p. m. — The President has passed anotlier good day. 
He has taken an adequate quantity of nourishment, and has had several 
pleasant naps during the day. At 12 : 30 p. m. his i^ulse was 98 ; tem- 
perature, 98.4; respiration, 18. After 4 p. m. his temperature began to 
rise as usual, but to a moderate degree and without perceptible drj'ness 
of skin. His pulse is 102; temperature, 100.4; respiration, 19. 

TJie thirty-sixth day. — The public had now accepted, with abid- 
ing trust, the oft-repeated assurances of the surgeons that the 
President was on the road to health. The White House, from 
being the center of interest for the people of the whole country, 
as it had been two weeks before, had become the dullest place in 
Washington. Doctors came in and went out, and casual inquirers 
continued their visits. The military guards patrolled the space in 
front of the one gate through which access was had to the grounds, 
but beyond this nothing in the appearance or surroundings of the 
place indicated that public attention was, in any marked degree, 
turned in that direction. Great interest in the progress of the 
case continued, but it was not so intense and all-absorbing as 
hitherto. The bulletins were again the only news: 

"8:30 A. M.— The President has passed an excellent night, sleeping 
sweetly the greater part of the time. This morning he is cheerful, and 
all the indications promise another favorable day. Pulse, 92 ; tempera- 
ture, 98.4; respiration, 18. 7 p. m.— The President passed a comfort- 
able morning, his symptoms and general condition being quite satisfac- 
t®ry. At 12:30 p. m. his pulse was 100; temperature, 98.5 ; respiration, 
19. The afternoon rise of temperature began as late as yesterday, but 
has been higher, though unaccompanied by dryness of skin. At 7 v. m. 
his pulse was 102 ; temperature, 101.8 ; respiration, 19. The appearance 
of the wound at the evening dressing was, however, good, and there haa 
been no interruption to the flow of pus." 

The thirty-seventh day.— T\^g 7th of August was probably the 
most quiet day since the President was w.und.d. There wa.^ 
some comment about the city regarding the information contained 
in the morning bulletin, the language ,.f which was, that the Pn-i- 



576 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

dent "this morning is in good condition, although the effects of 
the febrile disturbance of yesterday are still slightly perceptible in 
pulse and temperature." Many persons construed this sentence as 
indicative of unfavorable symptoms ; but the general public ac- 
cepted it as reassuring, and consequently there were but few inqui- 
ries at the Mansion in the course of the day. 

Within a narrower and better informed circle it was suspected 
that another pus sac was forming in the President's body, but the 
opinion did not, for the time, obtain publicity. The two official 
bulletins of the day were as follows : 

"8: 30 A. M. — Shortly after the bulletin of last evening was issued the 
President fell into a pleasant sleep, during which the febrile rise subsided 
and was no longer perceptible when he awoke at 10 p. M. Subsequently he 
slept well, though with occasional breaks during the rest of the night. No 
morphia or other anodyne was administered. This morning he is in good 
condition, although the effects of the febrile disturbance of yesterday are 
still slightly perceptible in pulse and temperature. At present his pulse 
is 96; temperature, 98.7; respiration, 18. 7 p. m. — The President has 
been comfortable during the day, although his temperature began to rise 
earlier than yesterday, and rose almost as high. At 12 : 30 p. m. his 
pulse was 104; temperature, 100; respiration, 20. At this hour his 
pulse is 104; tem])erature, 101.2; respiration, 20. He has taken nour- 
ishment as usual, and has had several refreshing naps during the day." 

One of the unofficial reports of the day was to the effect that an 
effort was making to trace out exactly the course of the wound, 
and that to this end an instrument, called the electric probe, was 
to be inserted in the track of the ball. Professor Taintor was 
called to the Executive Mansion late in the afternoon to consult 
with the attending surgeons regarding the use of the electric probe. 
After the consultation, he was requested to return in the morning 
and to bring with him a battery of two cells. The purpose was, 
should it be determined to experiment with the instrument, to 
endeavor to ascertain the exact course of the wound from the 
surface of the body to the spot where the ball was lodged, and if 
possible to discover whether there was a pus cavity, and, if so, 
its exact location. 



SHOT DOWN.— ANOTHER OPERATION. o77 

The thirty-eighth day. — On this morning the physicians hehl a 
consultation. The question of the President's afternoon fever Wiis 
discussed, and Dr. Agncw was reported as having urged upon 
the surgeons the fact that the febrile rise was greater and more 
persistent than it should be if occasioned by the natural and inevi- 
table processes of healing. The opinion was freely expressed that 
the channel of the wound was in some measure obstructed, and the 
propriety of a second operation to relieve the difficulty was sug- 
gested as the proper remedy. Accordingly, after the morning 
dressing of the wound, a second operation was performed, of which 
Dr. Bliss has given the following official account in the Medical 
Record for October 8, 1881: 

"The necessity of the operation was plainly developed by passing a 
flexible catheter through the opening previously niiule, which readily 
coursed toward the crest of the ilium, a distance of about seven inches. 
This cavity was evacuated twice daily, by passing through the catheter, 
previously inserted in the track, an aqueous solution of permanganate of 
potash from a small hand-fountain, slightly elevated, the water and pus 
returning and escaping at the opening externally. 

" The indications for making a point of exit in the dependent portion 
of this pus sac were urgent, and on August 8th the operation was i)er- 
formed by extending the incision previously made, downward and for- 
ward through the skin, subcutaneous fiiscia, external and internal oblique 
muscles, to a sinus or pus channel. The exposed nuiscle contained a 
considerable number of minute spicule of bone. Upon carrying a long, 
curved director through the opening between the fractured rib downward 
to the point of incision, there was a deeper channel which had not bcon 
exposed by the operation thus far, and the incision was carried through 
the transversalis muscle and transversalis fascia, opening into the deeper 
track and exposing the <?nd of the director. A catheter was then [.asscd 
into the portion of the track below the incision, a distance of three and 
one-half inches, and in a direction near the anterior superior spinous 
process of the ilium. Tlie President was etherized during this operation. 

This description of the operation, as narrated by Dr. 15li.><S m«y 
doubtless be accepted, though involving many technical expres- 
sions which, under the circumstances, are unavoidable, a-^ m rv. ry 
37 



578 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

way correct and adequate. The regular bulletins were issued as 
usual and presented the following summary of symptoms ; 

"8:80 A. M. — ^The President passed a comfortable night and slept well 
without an anodyne. The rise of temperature of yesterday afternoon 
subsided during the evening, and did not recur at any time through the 
night. At present he appears better than yesterday morning. Pulse, 
94; temperature, 98.4; respiration, 18. 

"10:30. — It having become necessary to make another opening to 
facilitate the escape of pus, we took advantage of the improved condition 
of the President this morning. Shortly after the morning bulletin was 
issued he was etherized. The incision tended downward and forward, 
and a counter-opening was made into the track of the ball below the 
margin of the twelfth rib, which it is believed will effect the desired object. 
He bore the operation well, and has now recovered from the effects of 
the etherization and is in excellent condition. 

7 p. M. — After the last bulletin was issued the President suffered some- 
what for a time from nausea due to the ether, but this has now subsided. 
He has had several refreshing naps, and his general condition is even 
better than might have been expected after the etherization and opera- 
tion. At noon his pulse was 104; temperature, 100.2; respiration, 20. 
At present his pulse is 108; temperature, 101.9 ; respiration, 19." 

The thirty-ninth day. — The ,effect of the surgical operation was 
salutary in so far as to make it practicable to dispense with the 
drainage-tube, to the great relief of the patient. The effects of the 
etherization, however, were somewhat distressing, and the shock 
of the operation no doubt told unfavorably on the President's 
small reserve of vitality. None the less, his condition was so far 
from unfavorable that Dr. Agnew returned to Philadelphia and 
Secretary Blaine made preparations to take a brief respite from 
care by a visit to his own State. The ripple of anxiety, excited 
by the recent operation, passed away, and matters went on as be- 
fjre. The official reports of the day were as follows : 

" 8: 30 A. M. — Notwithstanding the effects of yesterday's operation, the 
President slept the greater part of the night without the use of morphia. 
This morning his pulse is 98; temperature, 99.8; respiration, 19. Since 
yesterday afternoon small quantities of liquid nourishment, given at short 



SHOT DOWN.— BLAIXE VISITS MAINE. 579 

intervals, have been retained, and this morning larger quantities are 
being administered without gastric disturbance. 

" 12: 30 p. M. — At the dressing of the President's wound this morning, 
it was found that pus had been discharged spontaneously and freely through 
the counter-opening made yesterday. He has been quite comfortable 
this morning, and taken a liberal supply of liquid nourishment. His 
pulse is now 104; temperature, 99.7; respiration, 19. 7 P. M. — The 
President has been very easy during the day, and has continued to tiike 
the nourishment allowed without gastric disturbance. The degree of fever 
this P. M. differs little from that of yesterday. Pulse, 106 ; temperature, 
101.9; respiration, 19." 

It was one of the incidents of the day, that the President wrote 
his name, with the date, August 9, 1881, in a comparatively steady 
hand and without a serious effort. 

Tlie fortieth day. — The morning news recited that the President's 
appetite had somewhat improved, but this cheering information wa^ 
coupled with the announcement that the sufferer had not recovered 
sufficiently to be raised, as hitherto, into the semi-recumbent position. 
It transpired that the writing of the President's name on the pre- 
vious day had been an official act, namely, the attestation of a 
paper of extradition in the case of an escaped Canadian forger, 
who had several years yet to serve in prison. The general indica- 
tions were thought so flivorable that Secretary Blaine did not longer 
delay his departure, but left on his contemplated visit for home. In 
the afternoon Mrs. Garfield sat for a long time beside her husband, 
talking with him, in a quiet way, of things most dear to each. The 
physicians' official report closed the history of the day, as fblh.ws: 

"8 A. M.— The President slept soundly during the night, and this morn- 
ing his temperature is again normal, although his pulse is still fre.iucnt. 
At present it is 104; temperature, 98.5 ; respiration, 19. 12 : 30 P. M.— 
The President is getting through the day in a very satisfactory manner. 
He has asked for, and taken a small quantity of soli<l food n, additK.n 
to the liquid nourishment allowed. His temperature and respiration con- 
tinue within the normal range, though the dcl)ility following the operation 
is still shown by the frequency of pulse. At present Ins pulse i.s 110; 
temperature, 98.6; respiration, 19. 7 p. M.-Thc President ha^ p:i«8ed 



580 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

an excellent day. The drainage of the wound is now efficient, and the 
pus secreted by the deeper portions has been coming away spontaneously. 
The afternoon rise of temperature is almost a degree less than yesterday 
and the day before. Pulse at present 108 ; temperature, 101 ; respira- 
tion, 19." 

The forty-first day. — The passing epoch was again marked by a 
division of ppinion among the newspapers. A series of leading 
articles in the New York Herald, understood to be from the pen 
of Dr. Hammond, were not only despondent in tone and severe 
upon the attending surgeons, but positively prophetic of a fatal 
termination of the President's case. This view of the matter was, 
however, ably controverted in other leading papers, and the people 
were thus both led and misled. Looking to the sick room itself, 
there seemed to be not much cause for alarm. The President had 
improved somewhat in strength and appetite. He conversed freely. 
Especially did he surprise and gratify his attendants by calling for 
a writing tablet and penning a short but affectionate letter to his 
mother, — the last he ever wrote. 

Turning to the official reports of the day, the following summary 
of the President's progress was presented: 

"8:30 A. M. — The President has passed an exceedingly good night; 
sleeping sweetly with but few short breaks, and awaking refreshed this 
morning at a later hour than usual. At the morning dressing, just com- 
pleted, it was found that the deeper parts of the wound had been emptied 
spontaneously. His temperature shows an entire absence of fever this 
morning, and his pulse, which is less frequent than yesterday, is improv- 
ing in quality. At present it is 100; temperature, 98.6; respiration, 19. 

12:30 p. M. — The President is doing well to-day. Besides a liberal 
supply of liquid nourishment at regular intervals, he has taken for break- 
fast, with evident relish, an increased quantity of solid food. He continues 
free from fever, his skin is moist, but without undue perspiration. Pulse, 
102; temperature, 98.6; respiration, 19. 

" 7 p. M. — After the noon bulletin was issued, the President's condition 
continued as then reported until about 4 p. M., when the commencement 
of the afternoon febrile rise was noted. In its degree it did not differ 
materially from that of yesterday. His pulse is now 108 ; temperature, 
101.2 ; respiration, 19." 



\ 
SHOT DOWN.— HIS LAST LETTER. , 581 

T-v^-^ /^H^ /U^ A^w^ /^tS<L 

FAC-SIMILE OF TUE LAST LETTKU V.UITTEN BV GARFIELD. 



582 . LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

The forty-second day. — Not much change. The President was 
weary and longed for a change of scene. The day when he could 
be safely removed from the White House was anxiously antici- 
pated both by himself and the physicians. The United States 
steamer Tallapoosa, which had been undergoing repairs and fitting 
out for sea during the past month, was finally in complete readi- 
ness, and would be manned on the morrow. Assistant Paymaster 
Henry D. Smith, formerly of the Dispatch, had been transferred 
to the Tallapoosa. In a conversation of tlie morning, Mr. Smith 
gave a description of the manner in which the vessel had been fit- 
ted out. A suite of rooms had been prepared expressly for the 
use of President Garfield in the event of its being found practi- 
cable to take him out on the water, and at this time the suggestion 
of such a cruise seemed to please him greatly. The suite con- 
sisted of four comparatively large rooms, including a bed-cham- 
ber, reception and ante-room, and a bath-room. Paymaster Smith 
said further, that if it should be determined to take the President 
on the vessel, a swinging bed would be hung in his chamber so 
that the patient should not be annoyed by the motion of the ves- 
sel. Such were the plans and hopes which were never, alas, to 
be realized. 

The surgeons' reports for August 12th contained about all that 
could be said concerning the President's condition for the day : 

" 8 : 30 A, M. — The President slept well during the greater part of the 
night. The fever of yesterday afternoon subsided during the evening, 
and has not been perceptible since 10 r. M. His general condition this 
morning is good. Pulse, 100; temperature, 98.6; respiration, 19. 

"12: 30 p. M. — The President has passed a comfortable morning. He 
continues to take, with repugnance, the liquid nourishment allowed, and 
ate with relish for breakfast, a larger quantity of solid food than he took 
yesterday. At present his pulse is 100 ; temperature, 99.3 ; respiration, 19. 

" 7 p. M. — The President has passed a comfortable day. At the even- 
ing dressing the wound was found to be doing well. The quantity of 
pus secreted is gradually diminishing. Its character is healthy. The rise 
of temj>erature this afternoon reached the same point as yesterday. At 
present the pulse is 108; temperature, 101.2; respiration, 19." 



SHOT DOWN.— GRAVE APPREHENSIONS. 583 

Thus from hour to hour, from day to day, from week to week, did 
the President tread the long and weary wa,y onward and — downward. 

The forty-third day. — It was about this time that the attending 
surgeons finally abandoned their original diagnosis of the wound ; 
that is, in so far as it concerned the direction of the ball. For 
some time Dr. Hamilton had given it as his view that the bullet, 
instead of entering the peritoneal cavity, and perforating the liver, 
had been turned downward at nearly a right angle to its course, 
and was lodged in the region behind the ilium. This view of 
the case was now accepted by the physicians in charge. In a con- 
versation, of the day. Dr. Bliss said that the latest examinations 
of the wound had clearly shown that the ball did not go through 
the liver. The liver was certainly injured by the shot, either by 
concussion or inflammation. At the present time, however, every 
indication corroborated the idea that the ball was in the region 
of the iliac fossa, and also that it was doing no harm. 

Things had not gone well during the night. The President had 
been restless ; and^ contrary to the usual history of the case, fever 
was reported in the morning bulletin. The foreign dispatch of 
Hon. R. R. Hitt, Acting Secretary of State, referred to the Presi- 
dent's excited condition, and could only reiterate the somewhat un- 
certain echo of the bulletins, that the surgeons thought him " do- 
ing well." The official reports themselves were couched in the 
following language; 

"8: 30 A. M.— The President did not sleep as well as usual during the 
early part of the night. After mi(hu'ght, however, his sleep wa.s re- 
freshing, and broken only at long intervals. This morning he ha.s a 
little fever, nevertheless he expresses himself as feeling better tlian for 
several days past. Pulse, 104; temperature, 100.8; respiration, 19. 
12:30 p. M.— The President has been cheerful and ea.'^y during the 
morning, and his temperature has fallen a little more than a degree 
and a half since the morning bulletin was issued. Ilis pulse is now 
102; temperature, 99.2; respiration, 18. 6:30 p. M.-Sincc the last 
bulletin the President has continued to dj well. The aftcTnuon fever 
has been half a degree less than yesterday. At present his pulse is 
104; temperature, 100.7; respiration, 19." 



584 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

The forty-fourth day. — One of the difficulties with which 
President Garfield had to contend was a certain weakness 
of digestion. Notwithstanding his great bodily strength and 
general robustness, it appears that never after the war were 
his assimilative powers equal to superficial indications. He 
had been, both by preference and necessity, a plain liver. 
The "eating" of the White House had not suited him. The 
French cookery of the establishment had proved at once dis- 
tasteful and injurious to his health and spirits. After he was 
wounded, this weakness in his bodily functions became at 
once more pronounced. Great difficulty was experienced in 
securing an alimentation sufficient to sustain life and repair 
the fearful waste to which he was subjected. The sensitive- 
ness of the digestive organs at times became critical. It was 
so on the 14th of August, when" the physicians were almost 
baffied in the attempt to maintain nutrition. For the first 
time there was talk of the stronger stimulants. "Whisky and 
brandy were both used, though not in large quantities. It 
could be plainly seen that under the outwardly confident tone 
of the official reports there lurked the shadow of fear. The 
regular bulletins of the day came out as usual, with the fol- 
lowing account of the sufferer's condition : 

"8:30 A. M. — The President slept well during the night, and this 
morning expresses himself as feeling comfortable. His temperature is 
one degree less than at the same hour yesterday. His general condi- 
tion is good. Pulse, 100; tenqjerature, 99.8; respiration, 18. 12:30 
P. M. — The President has done well this morning. His temperature 
has fallen one-half a degree since the last bulletin was issued. At 
the morning dressing the condition of the wound was found to be ex- 
cellent, and the discharge of pus adequate and healthy. Pulse, 96 ; 
temperature, 99.3; respiration, 18. 6:30 p. M. — The condition of the 
President has not materially changed since noon. The afternoon febrile 
rise is about the same as yesterday. Pulse, 108; temperature, 100.8; 
respiration, 19." 

The forty-fifth day. — A day of great alarm ; and the alarm 
was fully justified. There was evidence of weakening all 



SHOT DOWN.-DANGEROUS SYMPTOMS. 585 

around. The respiration liad gone np. The temperature liad 
gone up. So had the pulse to a fearful rate. The enfeebled 
stomach had broken down. That was the secret of the diffi- 
culty. Without food a well man can not live. How much 
less a man wounded to death and wasted by forty-five days 
of suflering! With every attempt to feed the President, his 
stomach rejected the food. If this state of things should con- 
tinue, life would go out like a taper. It was to the credit 
of the surgeons in charge that they took the situation coolly 
and set about devising the best possible means of triumphing 
over the fearful obstacle which lay squarely across the possi- 
bility of recovery. The plan suggested and resorted to was 
artificial alimentation by the administration of enemata. In 
the after part of the day, Washington, and indeed the whole 
country, was filled with wild rumors which conveyed very 
little information and could be traced to no authentic source. 
The only trustworthy information was to be obtained from the 
otficial bulletins of the surgeons, which were as follows : 

"8:30 A. M. — The President did not rest as well as usual last night. 
Until toward three o'clock his sleep was not sound, and he awoke at 
short intervals. His stomach was irritable and lie vomited several 
times. About three o'clock he became composed, and slept well until 
after seven this morning. His stomach is still irritable, and his tem- 
perature rather higher than yesterday. At present his pulse is 108 ; 
temperature, 100.2; respiration, 20. 12:30 P. M.— Since the last bul- 
letin, the President has not again vomited, and has been able to retain 
the nourishment administered. At the morning dressing, the discharge 
of pus was free and of good character. Since then his pulse has been 
more frequent; but the temperature has fallen to a little below what 
it was at this time yesterday. At present his pulse is IIH; tempera- 
ture, 99; respiration, 19. 6:30 p. m.— The irritability of the Trcsi- 
dcnt's stomach returned during the afternoon and he has voniite<l 
three times since one o'clock. Although the afternoon rise of tempera- 
ture is less than it has been for several days, the pulse and respinition 
are more frequent, so that his condition is, on the whole, \css satis- 
factory. His pulse is now 130; temperature, 99.0; respiration, 22." 



586 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

These reports clearly indicated the most serious crisis which 
had yet occurred since the President was shot. Unless the 
functions of the stomach could be restored by rest, there 
could be but one issue, and that was near at hand. 

The forty -sixth day. — All that could be said was that there 
had been slight improvement in some particulars. In the 
main matter — that of nourishment — the case was as bad as 
ever. Neither the city nor the country would have been sur- 
prised to hear that the President was dying or dead. The 
whole question, as matters now stood, was this: How long 
can he live? He himself was conscious, in good measure, of 
the appalling odds against him, but his calm heroism never 
wavered for a moment. From the first he only once — and 
that but for an instant — gave way to despondency, when he 
said to his wife that, considering the fact that he was already 
fifty years old, and that the brief remainder of his life would, 
perhaps, be weakened— possibly helpless— from his injury, it 
hardly appeared to be worth the struggle which his friends 
and himself were making to save it. This thought, however, 
found but a moment's lodgment; and even now, when his 
vital forces seemed to be flowing out to the last ebb of de- 
spair, he stood up manfully and faced the enemy. His will 
remained vigorous, and he w\as cheerful in spirit— this, too, 
when the very water which was tendered him to refresh his 
exhausted powers was instantly rejected by the stomach. It 
was clear that no human vigor could long withstand so dread- 
ful an ordeal; and the physicians recognized and acknowl- 
edged the fact that their unnatural system of alimentation 
w^as but a makeshift which would presently end in failure. 
Then death. The bulletins said: 

"8:30 A. M. — The President was somewhat restless during the early 
part of the night. Since three o'clock he has slept tranquilly most of 
the time. Nutritious enernata are successfully employed to sustahi him. 
Altogether the symptoms are less urgent than yesterday afternoon. At 
present his pulse is 110; temperature, 98.6; respiration, 18. 12 : 30 P. 
M. — ^The President has been tranquil since the morning bulletin, but 



SHOT DOWN.-BETTER NEWS. 587 

has not yet rallied from the prostration of yesterday as much as waa 
hoped. The enemata administered are still retained. At present his 
pulse is 114; temperature, 98.3; respiration, 18. 7 p. m. — Tiie Presi- 
dent's symptoms are still grave, yet he seems to have lo.<t no ground 
durmg the day, and his condition on the whole is rather hetter than 
yesterday. The enemata are retained. At present his pulse is 120; 
temperature, 98.9; respiration, 19." 

The forty -seventh day. — ISTotwithstanding the desperate ex- 
treme to which the poor President was reduced,- the dispatches 
came, on the morning of August 17th, with the news that he 
was better. The dreadful nausea had passed, and two or 
three times some nutritive food had been swallowed and re- 
tained. Moreover, he had slept as much as an hour at a 
time. The examination of the wound, too, showed some little 
ground for encouragement, for the process of healing had 
gone on, notwithstanding the terrible exhaustion of the last 
three days. In the inner circle about the President's bed 
there was a more hopeful feeling. "Little Crete," the dar- 
ling wife of the suftering Chief Magistrate, ventured out, with 
her three boys, to take a drive in tlie open air. Mr. Smalley, 
of the Tribune, thus spoke of her, as her carriage passed 
through the gateway : 

" Her face, as she gave a nod and a smile of recognition, looked 
bright and hopeful. I knew that the agony of apprehension must be 
over and the President must he on the upward road again. The 
brave little woman ! "What a terrible strain she has endured and with 
what wonderful courage and ])atience she has met every fresh draft 
upon her strength and resolution, keeping always out of her face the 
pain and dread tugging at her heart, lest the slightest gliinji.«e of it 
should discourage her husband in his long battle with death! I re- 
member that at Elberon, just before the fatal journey to Washington, 
General Garfield spoke of her with tenderness and i)ri(le, as a .steel- 
spring sort of a woman — supple, bright, enduring, and rebounding after 
the severest strains. If he Avins his way back to health again he will 
owe his recovery, I firmly believe, as much to the loving and cheer- 
ful ministrations of his wife, as to the six doctors who wait \\\mm\ him,' 
skillful and devoted as they are." 



.-.1 V 6 
i, ^' *' 



588 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



Later in the day, Mrs. Garfield received a dispatch from 
the Queen — there has been only one Queen since the Presi- 
dent was shot — which was answered by the wife in her own 
way. The dispatches were as follows: 

"To Mrs. Garfield, Washington, D. C: 

*'I am most anxious to know how the President is to-day, and to 
express my deep sympathy with you both. 

"The Queen, Osborne," 

"^er Majesty Queen Victoria, Osborne, England: 

" Your Majesty's kind inquiry finds the President's condition changed 
for the better. In the judgment of his medical advisers there is strong 
hope of his recovery. His mind is entirely clear, and your Majesty's 
kind expressions of sympathy are most grateful to him, as they are 
gratefully acknowledged by me. Lucretia R. Garfield." 

The regular bulletins gave the usual epitome of symptoms, 
as follows : 

"8:30 A. M. — The President has passed a tranquil night, sleeping most 
of the time. He continues to retain the nutritive enemata, and has not 
vomited since the last bulletin. His general condition appears more 
hopeful than at this time yesterday. Pulse, 110; temperature, 98.3; 
respiration, 18. 12:30 p. M. — The President's condition has not materi- 
ally changed since the last bulletin. He has been tranquil and has slept 
some, has not vomited, and the nutritive enemata are still retained. 
Pulse, 112; temperature, 98.7 ; respiration, 18. 6:30 p. M. — The Presi- 
dent's condition is even better than it was this morning. The wound 
continues to do well. At present his pulse is 112; temperature, 98.8; 
respiration, 18." 

Meanwhile the trusted Secretary Blaine had reached Washing- 
ton and was again at the bedside of his chief In the evening he 
sent abroad two dispatches containing a brief summary of the 
President's condition as determined by the official reports and by 
his own observation. And so the day closed in hope rather than 
despair. 

The forty-eighth day. — The President was still further improved — 
so thought and said his physicians. The mutinous stomach, Avhich 



SHOT DOWN.— CHEERFUL AND BRAVE. 589 ^ 

liad threatened to end his life by refusing to perform its work at a 
time when it was not possible for his weakened system to bear for 
any lengthened period the strain of the wound and the fever with- 
out sustenance, had renewed its functions, and the cxj)eriments 
made during the day gave reasons to hope that nourishing food 
might now be administered with safety. It was good news indeed, 
and it would have been better if it had not been coupled with the 
statement that the President was reduced almost to a skeleton. 
From 210 pounds — his weight when shot — he had wasted away 
till his weight was hardly 135 pounds. Yet with only this pitiful 
bony structure of himself left he was reported as cheerful and brave! 
He was able to take more nourishment than on the previous dav, 
and it appeared that his alimentation was now likely to be suffi- 
cient ; but just as this beneficial reaction became noticeable, another 
complication arose which threatened to overbalance all the expected 
good. On the 17th of August a slight inflammation was noticed in 
the right parotid gland. By the following morning the swelling 
was more pronounced, and immediately became a source of annoy- 
ance and alarm. The tumefaction assumed the appearance of a car- 
buncle and there were indications of approaching suppuration of 
the gland. The face, especially on the right side, became distorted, 
and the President suffered great pain from the inflamed part. It 
was clear that in some measure the blood of ih.Q sufferer had been 
poisoned by the discharges of the wound, and that nature was at- 
tempting to relieve her distress by the destruction of a gland. The 
official bulletins of the day, though pervaded with the same spirit 
of optimism which characterized them all, were not of a sort to 
inspire confidence. They said : 

" 8 : 30 A. M.— The President has passed a very comfortaljjc night, sleci>- 
ing well the greater part of the time. This morning his pulse is slower 
and his general condition better than yesterday at the same hour, i'lilse, 
104, temperature, 98.8; respiration, 17. 12:30 p. m.— Tlie President 
is suffering some discomfort this morning from commencing infianimation 
of the right parotid gland. He has asked for and rctiiined scvcnd por- 
tions of liquid nourishment, much more than he couM swallow ycstenhiy. 
The nutritive enemata continue to be used with success. At present hia 



590 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

pulse is 108 ; temperature, 98.4 ; respiration, 18. 6 : 30 p. m.— The Presi- 
dent has done well during the day. He has taken additional nourish- 
ment by the mouth this afternoon with evident relish and without sub- 
sequent nausea. His general condition is rather better than at this time 
yesterday. Pulse, 108; temperature, 100; respiration, 18." 

The forty -ninth day. — With the 19th of August a more hopeful 
feeling again predominated. It was alleged by the surgeons that 
the President had made some improvement. Some was better than 
none. His nutriment for the day amounted to nine ounces of 
liquid food. The physicians gave assurance to the public that the 
inflamed gland did not necessarily imply blood poisoning. The 
President slept at intervals. In his waking moments he was still 
cheerful, but expressed a great yearning to get away from Wash- 
ington and return to his home at Lawnfield. 

In these days of alternate hope and anxious alarm the question 
naturally arose as to wdiat had become of the Executive Depart- 
ment of the Government. The President was still himself in a 
certain sense, but he was Avithout doubt utterly incapacitated to 
perform any executive duty. There was no acting President, and 
to tell the truth the people did not desire one. Some leading pa- 
pers advocated the assumption of certain of the duties of the Presi- 
dent by members of the Cabinet; but this untried and — it may be 
added — unconstitutional measure was not attempted ; and so all ex- 
ecutive functions remained in abeyance. The acts usually per- 
formed by the President were simply omitted until he should re- 
cover. Fortunately in a time of peace and during a recess of Con- 
gress, these acts could be postponed without any great detriment to 
public interests. The appointing power, except in so far as it is 
delegated by law to the heads of Departments, was in a state of 
complete suspension, but this fact occasioned no trouble, except to 
apjjlicants for office. Under our system, where vacancies in Presi- 
dential appointments occur, by death or resignation, there is usually 
a deputy or some other officer who is authorized by law to per- 
form temporarily the duties of the office. In the cases of post-offi- 
ces where there are no deputy postmasters, the Post-Office Depart- 
ment is authorized to send special agents to take charge until the 



SHOT DOWN.— A "DISCOVERY." 591 V 

vacant postmastership can be filled. If the President's prostration 
should continue — so reasoned the people — until the meeting of 
Congress — a contingency wholly improbable — there would be no 
stoppage of any part of the machinery of Government. In short, 
the American people were taught by a practical, though painful, 
example the great lesson, how little need there is for a nation of 
freemen to be governed — how amply able such a people are to 
adapt themselves to any emergency. The official reports of the 
day gave as usual the facts on which various opinions of the Presi- 
dent's prospects were based: 

" 8 A. M. — The President slept much of the night, and this morning 
is more comfortable than yesterday. The swelling of the right parotid 
gland has not increased since yesterday. Nutritive enemata are still 
given with success, and liquid food has been swallowed and relished. 
Pulse, 100; temperature, 98.4; respiration, 17. 

" 12: 30 p. M. — The President's condition has perceptibly improved dur- 
ing the last twenty-four hours. He is taking to-day an increased quan- 
tity of liquid food by the mouth. His pulse is now lOG; temperature, 
98.8; respiration, 17. 

"6:30 p. M. — The President has been very easy during the afternoon 
and the favorable conditions reported in the last bulletin continue. 
Pulse, 106; temperature, 100; respiration, 18." 

Thefftidh day.— There could be no denial of another rally — 
thongh slight — on the part of the President. During the day 
a surgical experience occurred. Dr. Bliss, in treating the 
wound, succeeded in passing with a flexible tube what he .^^(/;>- 
jjosed to be an obstruction in the path of the ball. When 
this was done, the tube suddenly dropped, almost of its own 
weight, down the channel* to the depth of twelve and a half 
inches! The end of the probe w^as thus brought, as was con- 
fidently believed, into immediate proximity with the ball. The 
parotitis, from which the President was now suflcring so sc- 

* This channel was, of course, not the track of the ball, but the insidious bur- 
row of the pus, unfortunately assisted in its downward progress by tlic mistaken 
manipulations of the surgeons. 



f^ 592 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

verely, was reported as " about the same." As <&, consequence 
of this inflammation, though no acknowledgment of the fact 
was made at the time, the patient's face suffered a partial 
paralysis, which continued to seriously afflict him to the last. 
The summary of symptoms was published at the usual hours 
by the surgeons and presented the following statement of the 
President's condition. 

"8:30 A. M. — The President has passed a quiet night, and this morn- 
ing his condition does not differ materially from what it was yesterday. 
The swelling of the parotid gland is unchanged and is free from pain. 
This morning his pulse is 98; temperature, 98.4; respiration, 18. 

"12:30 p.m. — The President continues to do well. He is taking 
liquid food by the mouth in increased quantity and with relish. The 
nuti'itive enemata are still successfully given, but at longer intervals. 
His pulse is now 107; temperature, 98.4; respiration, 18. 

" 6 : 30 p. M. — The President has passed the day quietly. He has been 
able to take more liquid food by the mouth than yesterday, and the 
quantity given by enema has been proportionately diminished. The pa- 
rotid swelling remains about the same. Pulse, 110; temperature, 100.4; 
respiration, 19." 

The, ffty-first day. — It was a long and sorrowful journey. 
There were pitfalls in the way. That inflamed gland now be- 
came a source of profound anxiety. The salivary secretions 
were so augmented and at the same time vitiated as con- 
stantly to fill the jjatient's throat, threatening strangulation. 
The tendency to nausea was thus excited, and the President's 
stomach again rejected food. This fact told immediately on 
the modicum of strength still remaining, and as the day pro- 
gressed it appeared that medical skill was about exhausted in 
a hopeless struggle against the inevitable. The surgeons, 
however, as is the wont with the profession, still renewed the 
battle, now with this expedient and now with that, but always 
with the purpose of keeping the President alive until some 
kind of favorable reaction could supervene. The feature of 
the day's history was that the most serious alarm was spread 



SHOT DOWN.— THE INFLAMED PAROTID. 593 

abroad after the issuance of the evening bulletin. The tliree 
othcial reports were as follows : 

" 8 : 30 A. M. — The President aAvoke more frequently than usutil, yet 
slept sufficiently during the night, and appears comfortable this morning. 
The parotid swelling is about the same, but is not painful. He took 
liquid nourishment by the mouth several times during the night as well 
as this morning. Pulse, 106; temperature, 98.8; respiration, 18. 

"12:30 p. M. — The President's condition continues about as at the 
morning bulletin, except that there is a slight rise of temperature. 
Pulse, 108; temperature, 99.4; respiration, 18. 

"6: 30 p. M. — The President has vomited three times during the after- 
noon ; the administration of food by the mouth has, therefore, again been 
temporarily suspended and the nutritive enemata will be given more fre- 
quently. Pulse, 108; temperature, 99.2; respiration, 18." 

To these regular bulletins may well be added the foreign 
dispatch of Secretary Blaine, who, at a late hour, sent to Min- 
ister Lowell the following message : 

"Lowell, ^fmi^ter, London: 

"The President's sleep last night was broken and restless. His syni|> 
toms throughout the day have been less favorable, and his general con- 
dition is not encouraging. He is unable to retain food on his stomach, 
having vomited twice during the afternoon, the last time at 5 o'clock. 
This evening he has been able to drink water and retain it. The swell- 
ing of the parotid gland has not increased. Pulse and temperature alx.ut 
the same as yesterday. His sleep up to this hour (11 p. m.) has been 
somewhat disturbed. We are all deeply anxious. 

"Blaine, Secretary." 

The fp/sccond (Jivj.—Tha question was, how nnieli longer 
the wheels of vexed and exhausted Nature could c(uiti..ue to 
revolve. Every power of life within the uncouiidaiuing man 
was prostrated or dead. The inilammation in the gland li:.d 
now proo-ressed to a terrible extent, and an operation l..r its 
relief wa"s already contemplated. That bloo.l poisoning to 
some extent now existed, could hardly be eontrovertod. Lvn 
the oversanguinc Dr. Bliss was forced to a<ln>it it. In a con- 



X 



/- 694 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

versation of the day, and in reply to questions with regard to 
the inflamed gland, he said: "The glandular swelling is still 
hard, and shows no signs of suhsiding. The swelling of the 
surrounding parts has pretty much disappeared. Whether 
suppuration will take place or not we can not yet tell. I am 
inclined to think it will. I do not, however, apprehend any 
serious consequences even in that case, provided we can main- 
tain the patient's strength. The pus which forms is likely to 
be of a healthy character, and w^e .shall liberate it promptly 
by an incision. There has been no pain in the gland this 
afternoon, and it has caused the patient little annoyance." 

With regard to the septic tint in the blood, which was the 
predisposing cause of the glandular inflammation, Dr. Bliss 
said : " In cases of this kind, Avhere the patient becomes en- 
feebled by long-continued fever and suppuration, there is 
always a low and impoverished state of the blood. It is, in- 
deed, a sort of mild blood poisoning, but it is very different 
from pysemia. Pyaemia is caused by absorption into the blood 
of the disunited elements of broken down pus. Small frag- 
ments of fibrine are carried into the circulation, and wherever 
such a fragment lodges in one of the minute blood-vessels it 
becomes a center of suppuration. The symptoms of pyemia, 
such as the disorganization and peculiar odor of the pus, the 
yellowish tint of the skin, the odor of the breath and the in- 
creased temperature of the body, are all marked and unmis- 
takable, and none of them has at any time appeared in the 
President's case." 

Thus with vain conjectures and provisos did the distinguished 
surgeon attempt to keep up his own courage and that of the pub- 
lic. But it was now well known that, bulletins or no bulletins, 
the President, unless promptly relieved either by medical skill 
or some unexpected revival of nature, was down to the very door 
of death. The official reports of the day were as follows: 

"8:30 A. M.— The President has not vomited since yesterday after- 
noon, and this morning he has twice asked for and received a small 
quantity of fluid nourishment by the mouth. He slept more quietly 



SHOT DOWN.-PROSPECTS IMPEOVING. 595 ^ 

daring the night, and this morning his general condition is more encour- 
aging than when the last bulletin was issued. Pulse, 104; temperature, 
98.4; respiration, 18. 

"12:30 p. M.— The President has continued this morning to retain 
liquid nourishment tjiken by the mouth as well as by enema. There 
has been no recurrence of the vomiting and no nausea. Pulse. 104 ; 
temperature, 98.4; respiration, 18. 

"6:30 p. M. — The President has continued to take nouri.shment in 
small quantities at stated intervals during the entire dav, and luus had 
no return of nausea or vomiting. The nutrient enemata are also re- 
tamed. Pulse, 110; temperature, 100.1; respiration, 19." 

The fifty-third day. — How is the President this morning? The 
President had made a gain. Of a certainty, he was not any further 
in the shadow of the valley than on yesterday. He had taken in 
all, since the morning before, about thirty ounces of licjuid i'ood 
without disturbing his stomach. Several times he called for food 
himself. One of the physicians said during the day that the Presi- 
dent had taken more than sufficient food to repair the day's waste. 
At one time his pulse was down to ninety-six — the lowest ])()int 
it had reached for more than a fortnight. Secretary Blaine — in 
whose dispatches the people had learned to place the highest re- 
liance — expressed himself somewhat more hopefully to Minister 
Lowell, in the night message, which read as follows : 

"Low^ELL, Minister, London: 

" The President's condition is more encouraging than it was at this 
time last night. During the last twenty-four hours lie has swallowed 
ten ounces of extract of beef and eighteen ounces of milk, rotuining and 
digesting both. He has twice asked for food, which lie has nnt done 
before for several days. Pulse and temperature arc both somewhat 
lower. The swelling of the parotid gland has not specially changed. 
Its long continuance at the present stage increases the fear of .suppura- 
tion. At this hour— 11 o'clock— the physicians report that the Presi- 
dent has rested quietly the entire evening. Blaine, Secrctanj." 

Anxious concern about the President's condition on the part of 
the public was tempered with so much hopefulness tliat the evi- 



^ 596 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

dences of excitement somewhat abated. The street gatherings 
about the bulletin-boards in the principal cities were not so large 
as they had been, although the three official bulletins from the 
physicians and Secretary Blaine's message to Minister Lowell were 
eagerly waited for and much talked of in public places. These 
bulletins were, in the usual form, as follows: 

"8:30 A. M. — The President slept the greater part of the night, hut 
awoke at frequent intervals. He has taken since last evening a larger 
quantity of liquid food by the mouth than in the corresponding hours 
of any day during the past week. The use of nutrient enemata is 
continued at longer intervals. Pulse, 100; temperature, 98.4; respira- 
tion, 18. 

"12:30 p. M. — The President continues to take by the mouth and 
retain an increased quantity of liquid food. At the morning dressing 
the wound looked well and the pus was of a healtiiy character. The 
mucus accumulations in the back of the mouth are less viscid. At 
present his pulse is 104; temperature, 98.9; respiration, 18. 

"6: 30 p. M. — The President has continued to take liquid food by the 
mouth at regular intervals during the day, and has had no recurrence 
of gastric disorder. Pulse, 104; temperature, 99.2; respiration, 19." 

The fifty-fourth day. — The events of the day were two: First, 
the lancing of the inflamed gland — an operation but partially suc- 
cessful in its results; secondly, a consultation of the surgeons in 
regard to removing the President from the White House. Dr. 
Agnew was summoned to the city by telegram. He was driven 
at once to the Executive Mansion, where the cabinet and medical 
council were in consultation, and remained closeted with them 
until nearly midnight. The consultation lasted rather more than 
an hour; and, so far as could be ascertained, it resulted in a dis- 
agreement. All of the participating surgeons who could be seen 
refused to talk upon the suliject, as did also the members of the 
Cabinet, most of whom were at the AVhite House until after eleven 
o'clock. 

A third circumstance of the day's history was the reported de- 
lirium of the President. This was for awhile concealed, and then 
palliated by those nearest the bedside. Colonel Rockwell, one of 



SHOT DO"\VN.— NOT GAINING. 'J^>7 

the attendants, in conversation with a reporter, described the men- 
tal disturbance thus: "The President is sometimes a little incoher- 
ent for a moment after he awakes and before he fully gets control 
of his senses, just as any body would be in his weak and dcl)ili- 
tated condition and after seven weeks of fever; but at all otiier 
times his mind is as clear as ever." 

The dispatch of Secretary Bhiine was very much less hopeful 
than the one of the night before. It read as follows : 

"Lowell, Miidder, London: 

"The President has not gained to-day. lie has liad a higher fever, 
which began earlier than is ui^ual with liis fel)rile rise. In the afternoon 
an incision was made in the swollen parotid gland l)y Dr. Hamilton. 
The flow of pus therefrom was small. The one favorable symptom of 
his swallowing liquid food with apparent relish and digestion has con- 
tinued, but the general feeling up to midnight is one of increased anxiety. 

"Blaink, Secretary." 

To this might well be added the additional hopeful circmnstance 
that during the day the President's assimilative powers appeared 
to be again in such condition as to warrant the j)hysicians in dis- 
pensing with the system of artificial alimentation. The regular 
bulletins for the day were as follows: 

"8:30 A. M.— The President has passed a very good night, awaking 
at longer intervals than during several nights past. He continues to 
take hquid food by the mouth with more relish, and in such .luantity 
that the enemata will be suspen.led for the present. No change has yet 
been observed in the parotid swelling. The other symptoms are (,uite its 
favorable as yesterday. Pulse, 100; temperature, 98.5; respu-ation, U. 

"12-30 p. M.— The President continues to take liquid 1o(h1 l)y tlie 
mouth as reported in the last bulletin. His temperature has ri.sen slightly 
since that time. In other respects his condition is about the sam.-. 
Pulse, 104; temperature, 99.2 ; respiration, 17. 

.<6.30 p M-Shortlv after the no<m bulletin was issued nn mcision 
was ma.le into the swelling on the right side of the President's face for 
the purpose of relieving the tension of the swollen parotxl gland and of 
giving vent to pus, a small quantity of whieh was evacuated H. ha.n 
take^ra larger quantity of liquid food by the mouth tcwlay than ye.«ter- 



^7 






i~ 



598 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

day, and has been entirely free from nausea. Pulse, 108 ; temperature, 
100.7; respiration, 19." 

The fifty -fifth day. — The first report of the morning; indicated 
that there was no more than a bare possibility of President Gar- 
field's recovery. His condition was such as to cause the gravest 
apprehensions as to the immediate result. He continued to take 
food, but there was no perceptible increase in strength. His con- 
dition — with his wasted form, distorted and half-paralyzed face, 
dreadful Avound, and suppurating gland — was pitiable in the last 
decree. Hallucinations came on, and he talked incoherently — 
now of his immediate surroundings, and now of his old home at 
Mentor. There was little remaining for the surgeons to do. Their 
effort for the time was directed chiefly to the alleviation of the in- 
flamed gland, which was now playing havoc with the few springs 
of vitality yet remaining as a source of hope. The whole gland 
was found to be infiltrated with pus, and the outlook, even for the 
uight, was grave in the extreme. The physicians' bulletins, four 
in number to-day, were published, as usual, and presented to the 
anxious country several points of interest : 

"8: 30 A. M. — The President slept most of the night. He has taken 
liquid food by the mouth at stated intervals and in sufficient quantity, so 
that the eneniata have not been renewed. No modification of the parotid 
swelling has yet been observed. Pulse, 106; temperature, 98.5; respi- 
ration, 18. 

" 9: 15 A. M. — The subject of the removal of the President from Wash- 
ington at the present time was earnestly considered by us last night and 
ao-ain this morning;. After mature deliberation the conclusion was ar- 
rived at by the majority that it would not be prudent, although all agree 
that it will be very desirable at the earliest time at which his condition 
may warrant it. 

" 12: 30 p. M. — Since the issue of this morning's bulletin a rise in the 
President's temperature similar to that which occurred yesterday morn^ 
ing has been observed. Pulse, 112; temperature, 99.2; respiration, 19. 

"6:30 p. M. — There has been little change in the President's condi- 
tion since the noon bulletin was issued. The frequency of his pulse is 
now the same as then. His temperature has risen somewhat, but it is 



SHOT DOWN. FA I LINO RAPIDLY. 599 

not so liigh as yesterday evening. No unfavorable change lias been ob- 
served in the condition of the wound. He has taken by the mouth a 
.sufficient supply of liquid food. Pulse, 112; temperature, 99.8; res- 
piration, 19." 

The fifty-sixth day. — The morning papers were almo.-t exclu- 
sively devoted to the President and the prospect of death. The 
great New York dailies presented page after page of disjiatches, 
interview.s, and discussions. The sum of it all was this: The 
President was alive, but, in all probability, on the verge of death. 
His pulse rose to a mere flutter. The abscess in the gland bur-t 
into the cavity of the car. His mind still wandered, l)ut there 
was slightly less aberration than yesterday. Washington was a 
.strange scene. There was sup})ressed excitement, but no noi.se. 
Little knots of people gathered in groups here and there before 
the bulletin-boards, where the latest intelligence was posted, while 
negro ne\ysboys in their picturesque co.stumes cried their extras in 
the mellow Southern accent peculiar to their race. The intense 
August sun poured down his rays on the broad streets and as- 
j)haltum boulevards. The trees were browned with the (lu>t ami 
heat, and the patches of grass here and there in the yards and 
parks were withered into hay. Above it all, gleaming white and 
silent, ro.se the great dome of the Capitol, Alas, what was it all 
to himf 

There was in the midst of infinite rumors and conjectures 
only a modicum of news. It was this: the President t-ould still 
take food. His mind had cleared a little since yesterday. As 
for the rest, he lay helpless, ready to die. The bulletins said : 

"8:30 A. M. — The President slept most of the night, awaking at in- 
tervals of half an hour to an hour. On first awaking there was, as 
there has been for .several nights past, sonic niciital confusion, which di-- 
appeared when he was fully roused, and occasionally he muttered in Ids 
sleep. These symptoms have abated this morning, as on previous days. 
His temperature is slightly above the normal and his pul.<»' a little more 
frequent than yesterday morning. Pul.se, lOH; tenqx-rature, 99.1; res- 
piration, 17. 

"12:30 i'. M. — His pul.<e and temperature are at present higher than 



sac 

Y 600 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

at the corresponding hour for some days. He continues to take by the 
mouth the liquid food prescribed; nevertheless, we regard his condition 
as critical. Pulse, 118; temperature, 100; respiration, 18." 

"6:30 P. M. — The President's condition has not changed materially 
since the last bulletin was issued. He continues to take, by the mouth, 
the liquid food prescribed, and occasionally asks for it. Since yesterday 
forenoon, commencing at 11:30 A. M., the enemata have again been given 
at regular intervals, as a means of administering stimulants, as well as 
nutrition. They are retained without trouble. Pulse, 116; temperature, 
99.9 ; respiration, 18." 

The ffty-seventh day. — Another long day of siTspense. It was 
the peculiarity of President Garfield's illness that just as some 
great crisis came and his constitutional forces seemed to break 
hopelessly, at some other point tliere would be a rally. In this 
last case, when the distressing abscess in the parotid gland had 
added its aggravating horrors to horrors already accumulated, 
and just as tired nature seemed sinking to everlasting rest, there 
was a rally in the assimilative powers. Unexpectedly, the 
stomach began to perform its work; and thus the tree of life, 
shaken back and forth by conflicting forces, still rose feebly 
and stood. It was a melancholy sight to see this enfeebled and 
wasted life, so dear to the Nation, still standing, with its glori- 
ous foliage torn away — withered, blighted, dying. 

The Queen on this day again expressed her great anxiety 

about the President. Her dispatch, and Mr. Blaine's answer, 

were as follows : 

" London, Aug. 27. 

"Blaine, Secretary, WasJiwfjton: 

" I have just received from Her Majesty the Queen, at Balmoral, a tele- 
gram in these words: 'I am most deeply grieved at the sad news of the 
last few days, and would wish my deep sympathy to be conveyed to Mrs. 
Garfield.' Lowell, Minister." 

" Washington, Aug. 27. 
"Lowell, Minister, London: 

" I have submitted to Mrs. Garfield your telegram conveying the kindly 
message from Her Majesty the Queen. Mrs. Garfield is constantly by 
her husband's bedside and does not give up all hope of liis recovery. 



io/ 



SHOT DOWN.— QUEEN VICTORIA'S SYMPATHY. 



001 < 



Her request is that you will return to the Queen her most sincere thanks, 
and express her heartfelt appreciation of the constant interest and tender 
sympathy shown by Her Majesty toward the President and his family in 
their deep grief and most painful suspense. Blaine, Secretary." 




BLAINE READING LETfEItS OF SYMPATHY Ti > MELS. (;.\i:i li;i l> 

The Americans, in a political point of view, do not like 
kings and queens; but it will be many a loiiir year before 
the womanly greatness and tenderness of Victoria, manifested 
in our hour of sorrow, will be oblitoratc(l from the American 
heart. Virat semper Reejina! 



602 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

The daily bulletins of the surgeons told all that could be 
known of the beloved President : 

"8:30 A. M. — The President slept from half an hour to an hour or 
more at a time throughout the night. He continues to retain the liquid 
food administered by the mouth and the stimulating enemata. Never- 
theless, his pulse has been more frequent since midnight and he is evi- 
dently feebler this morning than yesterday. Pulse, 120; temperature, 
98.4; respiration, 22. ' 

"12:30 p. M. — There has been no improvement in the President's con- 
dition since the last bulletin was issued. He coutinues to retain the liquid 
food administered by the mouth as well as the enemata. At present the 
pulse is 120; temperature, 99.G; respiration, 22. 

"6:30 r. m. —The President's symptoms show slight amelioration this 
afternoon. His pulse is somewhat less frequent and his temperature 
lower. Tlie liquid food given by the mouth and the enemata coutinues to 
be retained. Pulse, 114; temperature, 98.9; resp>iration, 22." 

The ffty -eighth day. — The reports of the morning were briefer. 
They were also more encouraging. It was clear that tlie 
President, notwithstanding his desperate condition, had held his 
own for thirty-eight hours, and that there were some unmistaka- 
ble signs of improvement. It could not be said wnth truth that 
the change was great or marked, but there had been some 
amelioration. The shadow of death was lifted, at least for a 
day. The people, quick to run to extremes, gave a sigh of re- 
lief at the more cheering reports of the morning, and went 
whither they listed. It was said that the President had had 
another relapse and was now better again. Even the cautious 
Secretary of State Avas impressed with the belief that the Pres- 
ident's improvement was more than a temporary rally. In his 
foreign dispatch he summed up the case thus : 

" To Lowell, Minister, London: 

"The condition of the President at 10 o'clock continues as favorable as 
could be expected. Within the past thirty hours his improvement has 
given great encouragement to the attending surgeons. He swallows an 
adequate supply of liquid food; the parotid swelling discharges freely, 



SHOT DOWN.-A VALUABLE LESSON. G0.3 "^ 

and gives promise of marked improvement, lli.s mind is porfectly clear. 
He has, perhaps, a little more fever than was anticipated, and his respi- 
ration is somewhat above normal. The general feeling is one of hof)e- 
fulness. Two or three days more of improvement will be needed 1.. in- 
spire confidence. Blaine, SccreUiry." 

The monotonous official reports were telegraphed as usual, 
in the following messages: 

" 8 : 30 A. M. — The amelioration of the President's symptoms announced * 

in last evening's bulletin continued during the night. Since midni-dit 
some further improvement has been observed, the pulse diminisliiiig in 
frequency. Tlie stomach has continued to retain liquid uourislunent ad- 
ministered, and last evening he asked for and ate a small quantitv of 
milk toast. Stimulating and nutrient enemata continue to be retained. 
Pulse, 100; temperature, 98.4; respiration, 17. 

" 12: 30 p. M. — At the morning dressing of the President several yel- 
lowish points were observed just l)elow the ear over the swollen parotid, 
and an incision being made, about a teaspoonful of healthy-looking pus 
escaped. Pulse, 104; temperature, 99.5 ; respiration, 18. 

"7:30 r. m. — The improvement in the President's condition, declared 
yesterday afternoon, is still maintained. He continues to take willingly 
the liquid food given by the mouth, and is apparently digesting it. The 
stimulants and nutrients given by enema are also retained. At the even- 
ing dressing an increased quantity of healthy-looking pus was discharged 
from the suppurating parotid. But little rise in temperature or pulse lias 
taken jjlacc since noon. Pulse, 110; temperature, 99.7; respiration, 20." 

The fifty -nmih day. — More than ciglit weeks had now elajtseJ 
since the President was shot. The country bad become used 
to alarms. It had also learned to make allowance for the 
shortcomings of newspaper reports, l)orn of the lu-at of an 
oversanguine imagination. It had learned, too, the more val- 
uable lesson that the Government of the United States is not 
to be shaken from its pedestal by the bullet of an assassin. 
Guiteau was a fool. Perhaps the despicable wretch thought 
the course of events, sweeping on like the planets, could be 
changed by the crack of a pistol, lie might as well have lired 



y 604 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

into the air. The glorious institutions of the Republic will 
perish when Americans are no longer fit to be free ; but until 
then the assassin's rage and frenzy is the most futile folly ot 
the world. All the officers of the United States may be mur- 
dered in a day, but the Nation will stand immovable as ada- 
mant. Let the assassin foam and gnash upon the iron bars of 
the cage of fate! It is only a mad-dog gnawing his chain. 

The President, they said, was better. Thoughtful men doubted 
it. As a matter of fact, the judgment of the country had given him 
up to die. Sentiment still kept him alive; reason said that the 
time of the fatal foreclosure was near at hand. It could be said, 
truthfully, that the local symptoms traceable to the abscess in the 
President's face had measurably abated. It could also be said 
that he was still able to receive food enough to sustain life — noth- 
ing more. Mr. Blaine's dispatch for the evening was, however, 
rather hopeful than desponding. It said : 

" Department of State, August 29, 10:30 p. m. 
"Lowell, 3Iin{ster, London: 

" At half-past ten to-night the general condition of the President is 
favorable. Late in the afternoon his pulse rose to 112 and his temper- 
ature to 100, both a little higher than the surgeons expected. Pulse has 
now fallen to 108, and fever is subsiding. The parotid swelling is stead- 
ily improving, and is at last diminishing in size. Apprehensions of seri- 
ous blood poisoning grow less every hour. Blaike, Secretary." 

These dispatches of the Secretary were generally but the i)ith of 
what the surgeons said in their official reports. These, for August 
29th, were as follows : 

" 8: 30 A. M. — The President's symptoms this morning are as favorable 
as yesterday at the same hour. He slept, awakening at intervals, the 
greater part of the night. At these intervals he took and retained the 
liquid nourishment administered. His mind continues perfectly clear. 
Pulse, 100; temiaerature, 98.5; respiration, 17. 12: 30 p. m. — Nothing 
new has been observed in the condition of the wound. The usual 
daily rise of temperature has not yet occurred, and the general condition 
has not materially changed since morning. Pulse, 106; temperature, 



SHOT DOWN.— BETTER KEPORTS. 



605 



98.6; respiration, 18. 6: 30 p. m. — The daily rise of the President's tem- 
perature began hiter this afternoon than yesterday, but rose eight-tenliis 
of a degree higher. The frequency of his i)ulse is now the same a.s at 
this hour yesterday. He has taken willingly the liquid food pres^cribed 
during the day, and had, besides, during the morning, a small piece of 
milk toast. At the evening dressing a pretty free discharge of healthy 




MORNING GRKETING BY MBS. OABFIKI.D AND MOI.LIE. 

pus took place from the parotid swelling, which is perceptibly .limiiiish- 
in^ in size The wound manifests no material change. Pulhc, 110; 1cm- 
perature, 100.5; respiratiim, 18." 

Tlie sixtieth c?ay.— The President still held out. All the world 



Z0(^ 

606 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

knows the story, how, day after day, owing to the native robust- 
ness and essential soundness of his constitution, he stood out 
against the death that awaited. As usual there were some who 
said he was better. Others said he was not. Once for all it 
may be said that such contradictions regarding the President's con- 
dition can easily be accounted for when the surroundings of the 
White House are considered. Only a few persons knew of their 
own observation how he appeared from day to day. Visitors 
were strictly, and necessarily, excluded from the sick-room. From 
the Tuesday after General Garfield was shot, not more than ten 
persons in all, excluding the physicians, had seen him, and, of these 
ten, some only once or twice. Mrs. Garfield and her children, 
Mr. Blaine, General D. G. Swaim, Colonel A. F. Rockwell, Dr. 
Boynton, Dr. Susan Edson, — one of the nurses, — the President's 
private secretary, Mr. J. S. Brown, and Mr. Pruden, completed 
the list. Mr. Blaine had seen him once, Mr. Pruden once, and 
Mr. Brown had been in five times, being usually called because 
the force of persons necessary to lift the President was a little 
short. Indeed, of all the strange impressions to be got from this 
novel event, there was none more peculiar than to stand in the 
private secretary's room in the second story of the White House, 
and feel that only a few yards away was the sick-room on which 
the eyes of the world were centered, and yet that not more than 
three persons besides the physicians, nurses, and family, have 
passed the door in two months ! It can thus be easily seen how 
correspondents and reporters were generally at sea, particularly 
when the physicians were reticent or out of sight. Mr. Blaine 
continued to express all that could be reasonably said of better 
prospects. His dispatch was as follows : 

" To Lowell, Minister, London : 

"The President, if not rapidly advancing, is at least holding his own. 
His fever is less than last night, and his swollen gland steadily improves. 
His pulse continues rather high, running this evening from 110 to 114. 
Perhaps the best indication in the case is, that the President himself feels 
better, and his mind, being now perfectly clear, he readily compares one 
day's progress with another. Blaine, Secretary." 



SHOT DOWN.-STILL BETTER. GOT 

The regular bulletins of the day were fuller if not more explicit: 
" 8: 30 A. M.— The President slept the greater part of the night, awak- 
ening at intervals, and retaining the liquid nourisluncnt adnunisterod. 
His general condition this morning is about the same as at the same 
hour yesterday. Pulse, 102; temperature, 98.5; respiration, 18. 
12:30 p. M. — At the morning dressing another small incision was 
made in the lower part of the swelling on the right side of the President's 
face, which was followed by a free discharge of healthy-looking pus. A 
similar discliarge took place through the openings. The swelling is per- 
ceptibly smaller, and looks better. The wound remains in an unchanged 
condition. Pulse, IIG; temperature, 98.9; respiration, 18. G:30 r. M. 
— The President has passed comfortably through the day. He has taken 
the usual amount of nourishment by the mouth, with stimulating enemata 
at stated periods Pulse, 109 ; temperature, 99.5 ; respiration, 18." 

The sixty-first day. — In these stages of the President's illness 
neither the optimist nor the pessimist newspapers were to be 
trusted in their accounts of the sick man and his surroundings. 
Even the dry records of the surgeons' reports were so many bones 
of contention among the wranglers, some of whom would have the 
President well while others would have him dead. The optimists 
on this last day of August head-lined their reports: "On tiie high 
road to recovery;" "Still better; "" Almost out of the woods," 
etc.; while the pessimist said: "The valley and the shadow;" 
"The end at hand," etc. Unfortunately the pessimist — not from 
any virtue in himself — was the truer pr()])het. It could not be de- 
nied, however, that in some material points the President had im- 
proved with some steadiness for several days. These fav<)rai)le 
points, rather than the dark ones, were dwelt on in the official re- 
ports, which presented the summary of symptoms for the day : 

"8:30 A. M. — The President has passed a tranquil night, and this 
morning his condition is quite as favorable asycsferday at tlic same hour. 
Pulse, 100; temperature, 98.4; respiration, 18. 12:30 r. m.— At the 
dressing of the President this morning the parotid swelling wa.s found to 
be discharging freely. It looked well and has materially (liinini.-*liod in 
size. The wound remains in about the same state;. His general condi- 
tion is evidently more favorable than at this hour yesterday. Pulse, 95 ; 



008 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

temperature, 98.4; respiration, 17. 6:30 p. m. — The President has 
passed a better day than for some time past. He lias taken his food with 
increased relish, and the usual afternoon rise of temperature did not occur. 
Pulse, 109; temperature, 98.6; respiration, 18." 

The sixty-second day. — The fiill month dawned with little ad- 
ditional news. The little that was presented was not good. 
The luxuriance of the scribes who had written up and written 
down almost every circumstance and symptom were about 
this time dipt of some of their superfluity. The public had 
grown stern and angered at being trifled with on so grave a 
matter as the condition of a dying President. A few manu- 
factured conversations were still published, but the amount 
of space so devoted in the journals of the day showed a 
pronounced shrinkage. Mr. Blaine's dispatches, always hon- 
est and sincere, were more than hitherto sought after as giv- 
ing the hungry and heart-sore people the most authentic in- 
fornuition concerning their stricken Chief Magistrate. The 
Secretary's telegram for the evening was as follows: 

'To Lovv'ELL, Minister, London: 

"The President continues to do well in his eatinc: and difrestion, and 
the swollen gland steadily improves, but in the past twenty-four hours 
he has made no substantial jDrogress in his general condition. In the 
judgment of his physicians, however, he still holds the ground gained 
on Sunday and Monday last. His pulse and temperature to-day have 
shown marked increase over the record of yesterday. The weather 
has been exceedingly warm and sultry, and this may account in part 
for the adverse changes noted. Even in the September climate of 
Washington such an oppressive day as this has been is rare. 

"Blaine, Secretary." 

The views of the surgeons were presented as usual in their 
official bulletins: 

"8:30 A. M. — Toward nine o'clock last evening the President had 
some feverishness, and his pulse ranged from 108 to 116. He had on 
the whole a good night, and his condition is fully as favorable as yes- 
terday at the same hour. Pulse, 100; temperature, 98.4; respiration, 



J 



SHOT DOWN.— FUETIIER IMPROVEMENT. HOO 

17. 12:30 r. m. — At the morning dressing of the President the al> 
scess of the parotid was found to be discharging freely. It looks well 
and continues to diminish in size. The state of the wound remains 
the same. His general condition is not materially different from what 
it was at this hour yesterday. Pulse, 108; temperature, 98; respira- 
tion, 18. 6:30 p. M. — The condition of the President has not materi- 
ally changed since the last bulletin, except that there has been a mod- 
erate rise of temperature this afternoon. The President has had no 
rigors for several weeks. Pulse, 108; temperature, 99.4; respiration, 
18." 

The sixty-thir4 day. — It was said, in tlic dispatches of the 
morning, that the President had still further improved, and 
that he was now better than at any time since the setting in 
of the parotid inflammation. Perhaps he was. There was 
no doubt that for some days he had lield his own. The 
question of the day, however, was the revival of the project 
to remove the sufferer from Washington. This proposition 
had been previously voted down in a consultation of the 
physicians and the members of the cabinet. But since then 
things were changed. Doubtless the surgeons were now con- 
vinced that, remaining where he was, the President must in- 
evitably die in a very short time. To this should also be 
added the persistent entreaties of General Garfield himself, 
who never forbore, on proper occasions, to urge upon those 
Avho were in responsible charge of his case, his earnest wish 
to be taken away from the scenes of his glory ami grief. 
By the 2d of September it was understood that the minds of 
the physicians were about made up to attempt the hazardous 
enterprise. It was known also that the Pennsylvania Kailway 
had already prepared a special train with a view to^roadinoss 
in case the removal should be finally decided on. The tram 
even now stood in readiness. 

A publication in the London Lmicd, for the current week, 
was perused with great interest by thousands of pfofessionn 
and unprofessional readers. Some encouragement was gleaned 
from the excerpt, which was as follows: 
39 



610 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

" We do not think the healing of President Garfield's wound will 
be promoted by probing to learn how far granulation has proceeded. 
The most favorable signs are the fall of temperature to tlie normal, 
and the frequency of the pulse. This is a thoroughly safe criterion 
of increased strength and the subsidence of blood poisoning ; and, to- 
gether with the improved power of digestion, ability to sleep soundly, 
mental clearness and cheerfulness, affords solid "grounds for the hope 
of recovery. 

"The case is a striking illustration of the jDOwer of a good constitu- 
tion to hold up against illness that would certainly have killed a fee- 
bler person; but another failure in the President's digestive powers, or 
symptoms of blood poisoning, might at any time turn the balance 
against him ; and what we have hitherto insisted upon so often we are 
bound to repeat, that President Garfield will not be out of danger until 
the wound is healed." 

The usual bulletins, from the surgeons in charge, were pub- 
lished thus : 

"8:30 A. M. — The President slept well during the night, and this 
morning his condition is in all respects as favorable as yesterday at the 
same hour. Pulse, 100; temperature, 98.4; respiration, 17. 12:30 p. 
M. — The President's condition has not materially changed since the 
morning bulletin was issued. Pulse, 108; temperature, 98.4; respira- 
tion, 18. 6:30 p. M. — The President has passed a comfortable day, and 
this evening appears better than for some days past. This evening his 
pulse is 104; temperature, 99.2; respiration, 18." 

The sixty-fourth day. — The removal of the President was 
fully determined on. The surgeons were unanimous that it 
should be undertaken. Long Branch was settled upon as the 
resort to which the wounded man should be removed. The 
physicians were unanimous in their selection of this place, 
and all necessary precautions were taken to insure the Presi- 
dent's comfort during his removal. It was a perilous busi- 
ness, and for the remaining days of the sojourn at the White 
House the energies of those who were responsible for the 
President's well-being were constantly engaged in making 
suitable arrangements for the removal. The account of the 



^' 



SHOT DOWN.— rKErAKIXG TO MOVE. Till 

President's progress for the day, iiotwitlistanding liis critical 
condition, was almost overlooked in the keen interest imme- 
diately excited by the project now imminent. Tlic surgeons 
themselves were unusually brief in their otiicial reports, which 
ran thus : 

"8:30 A. M. — The President was somewlmt more restless than usual 
during the early part of the night, but slept better after one A. M. 
There is a slight increase in the frequency of the pulse. Pulse, 104; 
temperature, 98.6; respiration, 18. 12:30 p. m.— The President's con- 
dition has not materially changed since the morning bulletin was issued. 
Pulse, 104; temperature, 98.4; respiration, 18. 6:30 p. M.— The Presi- 
dent has done well during the day, and has taken with some relish a 
sufficient quantity of nutriment. Altogether, his general condition ex- 
hibits some improvement over yesterday. Pulse, 102; temperature, 
99.6; respiration, 18." 

The sixty-fifth day.— The President himself was somewhat 
excited about his removal. In some respects this excitement 
was beneficial and in others hurtful to him. His spirits and 
hopes were in some measure aroused, and a stimulus thus 
afibrded to his exhausted powers. But the energy thus awak- 
ened was withdrawn from the long enfeebled stomach, and 
twice during the day his food was rejected. Otherwise, there 
were no alarming symptoms for the passing hour, and so 
public attention was wholly turned to the preparation. Pres- 
ident Roberts, of the Pennsylvania Railroad, commissioned 
George C. Wilkins, general superintendent of the Baltimore 
and Potomac Railroad, to take direction of the train wl.u-h 
was to carrv the President away. ^Ir. Wilkins was also di- 
rected to issue orders to his men, which would mablc him 
to stop every freight and passenger train that might be on the 
road between Baltimore and AVashington on halt :.n hour., 
notice, and to give the special train thr nght ot way at a.i} 
hour of the day or night. On the 4th of SeptcnibcM-, Mr. 
Wilkins accordinudv issued orders to carry out the following 
arrangement: When the day and hour of departure of the 



OC 612 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

train is known, he should bo informed, and a message would 
be sent along the entire road, stopping all freight trains that 
might be on the road. Passenger conductors would at each 
station receive an order either to stop or proceed to the next 
station, where the subsequent movements of their trains must 
be governed by the orders there awaiting them. In this way, 
which is, in fact, the " blocking " system in force on many 
roads, the movements of all trains would be controlled from 
the Union Depot, and they would be so handled as to give 
the special train the right of way and at the same time pre- 
vent the " regulars " while in motion from passing the special. 
This was done to prevent the President being disturbed by 
any jarring or disagreeable noise. 

No stops were to be made at any of the stations between 
Baltimore and Washington ; but should it be necessary to rest 
the nerves of the patient, the special train was to be halted 
in the open country, where fresh air and the absence of noise 
and crowds would be insured. Immediately on hearing of 
the appointed hour, JSIr. Wilkins was to leave Baltimore for 
"Washington in a special car, and come over to Baltimore with 
the President's train. This train was to be run around the 
city to Bayview, where William Crawford was to take charge 
of it and convey it to Philadelphia. His arrangements were 
like those of Mr. Wilkins. An engine of the N"ew York di- 
vision of the Pennsylvania road, and two Pullman palace cars, 
which were in part to compose the train, arrived at Baltimore 
on the 4th, and became subject to the orders of Colonel 
Wilkins whenever needed. 

The reports of the surgeons contained about the only au- 
thentic account of the President's condition during the day. 
These were as follows : 

•* 8: 30 A. M. — The President vomited once last evening and once about 
an hour after midnight. Notwithstanding this disturbance, he slept well 
most of the night, and this morning has taken food by the mouth with- 
out nausea, and has retained it. His pulse is somewhat more frequent, 
but in other respects his condition is about the same as at this hour yes- 



SHOT DOWN.-TRACK LAYING. 613 

terday. Pulse, 108; temperature, 98.4; respiration, 18. 12:30 r. m.— 
The President's condition lias not changed materially since the last bul- 
letin was issued, and there has been no further gastric disturbance. 
Pulse, 106; temperature, 98.4; respiration, 18. 6:30 p. m.— The Presi- 
dent has passed a comfortable day. He has taken his food with some 
relish, and had no return of the irritability of stomach reported in the 
morning's bulletin. The parotid swelling continues to improve. The 
wound shows no material change. The rise of temperature this after- 
noon has been very slight, but his pulse was more frcfpient, and he 
showed more fatigue after the dressings. Pulse, 110; temperature, 99; 
respiration, 18." 

Th£ sixty-sixth day. — It is the last day in Washington! 
Again the President is almost forgotten in the bustle of prep- 
aration. Mr. Francklyn, owner of one of the finest cottages 
at Elberon, Long Branch, has tendered it as a home for the 
wounded Chief Magistrate, and Colonel Rockwell has accepted 
the otter with thanks. So it is thither we are going on the 
last of our earthlj^ pilgrimages. Every thing is ready for the 
departure, and it is set for to-morrow morning at six. A 
retinue of strong men has been appointed to carry the Pres- 
ident down stairs to a wagon specially arranged to convey 
him to the depot. The day is hot; the air like a furnace. 
Down at Elberon there is a weird scene to-night. Tiiree 
hundred skilled engineers and workmen — a loyal company 
of sturdy patriots — are laying a temporary track to connect 
the main li?ie with the cottages on the heach. To perform 
this work laborers have been gathered together; a supply 
of tics and rails lie waiting the strong hands that are to 
fling them i)ito place. The length of the new track is 
3,200 feet. It is to be laid directly to the hotel grounds, 
describing a curve to the very door of Francklyn cottage, 
from whose windows we shall once more look nprni the sea. 
Crowds of men and women, gathered from the various li(»l(ds, 
stand witnessing the scene. Anon the clouds gather. Head- 
lights are put in place to furnish illumination. At intervals 
the workmen are served with refreshments from the l^lberon. 



>^ 614 



LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



All niglit long tlie work goes bravely on, and ere the dawn 
of morning the track is completed over which the siifi'ering 
President is to take his last journey in the land of the living. 




LAYING A SPECIAL RAILROAD TRACK TO FRANCKLYN COTTAGE. 

And now, while the shadows steal across the landscape in 
this sultry September evening, let us once more stand before 
these now familiar buUetiji boards and read : 



SHOT DO WX.— READY TO GO, 615 >C 

"8:30 A. M. — The President was somewhat restless during the early 
part of the night, but slept well after midnight. He has taken by the 
mouth and retained the nutriment prescribed. This morning his pulse 
is less frequent than yesterday. Pulse, 102; temperature, 99.5; respira- 
tion, 18. 12:30 p. M. — Pulse, 114; temperature, 99.5; respiration, 18. 
6:30 p. M. — No material change has taken place in the condition of the 
President since morning. The parotid abscess continues to im})rove, and 
the wound remains about the same. Pulse, 108; temperature, 99.8; 
respiration, 18. Should no untoward symptoms prevent, it is hoped to 
move the President to Long Branch to-morrow." 

And here is tlie faithful Mr. Blaine's dispatch to Minister 
Lowell, in London : 

"To Lowell, Minister, London: 

"This has been the hottest day of the season, and the heat has told 
upon the President. His pulse and temperature have been higher than 
for several days past. In other respects there has been no special 
change, either favorable or adverse. It is expected that he will be re- 
moved to Long Branch to-morrow. It is hoped that the sea air will 
strengthen him. Blaine, Secretary." 

Can the journey be made with safety? The nuu-row will 
tell the tale. Here in the twilight of that last d:iy in AVa.sh- 
ini^ton, as the hum of preparation settles to a calm, and as 
our eyes turn toward him whom we have followed so long in 
his heroic struggle, doubting yet hoping, we may well say with 
the London Punch : 

So fit to die! With courage calm 

Armed to confront the throatening dart. 

Better than skill is such higli heart 
And helpfuller than healing balm. 

So fit to live! With power cool 
Equipped to fill his function great, 
To crush the knaves who shame the State, 

Place-seeking pesla of honest rule. 

Equal to either fate he'll prove. 

May Heaven's high will incline the scale. 

The way our prayers would fain avail 
To weight it— to long life and love! 



616 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

GAZIXG ON THE SEA. 

Despite the prayers and tears and earnest pleading, 

And piteous protest o'er a hero's fall, 
Despite the hopeful signs our hearts misleading, ^ 

Death cometh after all ! 

Over the brightest scenes are clouds descending ; 

The flame soars highest ere its deepest fall ; 
The glorious day has all too swift an ending: 
Night cometh after all ! 

O'er bloom or beauty now in our possession 

Is seen the shadow of the funeral pall; 
Though Love and Life make tearful intercession, 

Death cometh after all ! — Harper's Weekly. 

THE finger of hope jjointed unmistakably in the direction 
of Long Branch, and as the morning of September 6th 
dawned upon the White House, all conditions appeared favorable 
for the removal of the beloved President bevond the malarial in- 
fluences of the Capital. Preparations for this event were complete. 
The anxiety of the President to leave Washington had been im- 
parted to all his friends and attendants. Even the physicians 
were convinced that nothing would bring relief to the suiferer so 
effectively as the pure, bracing salt breezes of the Atlantic, and 
their opinion increased the confidence and animated the hope of 
the country. 

The condition of the President seemed peculiarly favorable for 
the journey. He had eaten well on the previous day, and retained 
his food. He had slept peacefully, and his wound M'as doing well. 
The parotid swelling had almost disappeared, and the general con- 
ditions were thought to be remarkably good. It was even said 
that a considerable increase of strength was manifest in his move- 



GAZING ON THE SEA.-LEAVING THE WHITE HOUSE. 017 

ments, but this was evidently a mistake. The excitement of the 
occasion for the time overcame his weakness. 

All necessary arrangements for the jonruey were completed on 
the 5th. They were elaborate and well-developed. For the sj)e- 
cial railroad train the plan detailed in the previons chapter was 
adopted and successfully carried out. During the entire evening 
of the 5th, trunks, boxes, and a great variety of packages, were 
sent from the White House to the depot for shipment. Messen- 
gers were constantly arriving and departing, workmen were busv 
in special labor connected with various devices for the comfort of 
the President, and every thing indicated the eve of a great event. 
The crowd around the bulletin-board, at the front gate, was largelv 
increased, and many held their positions there during the weary 
watches of the whole night. Every passer-in or out, who was sup- 
posed to have information regarding the wounded man, was eagerly 
besought to impart it. In reply to a question. Colonel Corbin said 
to a reporter that the trip could not hurt the President, " because," 
he added, " he has been traveling all day." By this, Colonel 
Corbin meant that the President had been talking and thinking 
all day about the trip. This anxietv had characterized the Presi- 
dent's moods for some weeks, and it was therefore believed that 
the realization of his long-cherished desire would have a salutary 
effect upon his weakened system. 

At a few minutes past five, on the morning of the 6th, several 
carriages were grouped on the drive in front of the White House, 
and near the main entrance stood an Adams Express Magon, of tlie 
largest size, covered, and furnished with side and end curtains. It 
was near 6 o'clock when quite a commotion became apparent in the 
Executive Mansion, and a moment later the President, lying njxin 
a stretcher, was borne carefully and slowly to the express wagon, 
which had previously been connected with the stone steps of the 
White House by a wooden platform. It was r.rranged (o permit 
the men to walk directly itito the wagon, whcire they let the bed 
down slowly until it rested firmly upon its supports. Thi-u the 
immediate attendants of the President ranged themselves an. mid 
him, three on each side. At the head of the bed, on the right, sat 



618 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

Dr. Boynton, next was General Swaim, and at the foot was O. E. 
Eockwell. On the left were Colonel Rockwell, Dr. Bliss, and Dr. 
Reyburn, the other physicians having gone on before. The horses 
Avere attached, and at once the little procession was in motion, led 
by Private Secretary Brown, in his buggy. 

As the President's van passed out through the gate, the eyes of 
the invalid were closed, and that part of his face which could be 
seen looked pinched and pallid with suffering. In his general 
contour, there was something to suggest the face of Garfield to 
those who had known him long and intimately; but the change 
was astounding to every one unaccustomed to the daily observa- 
tion of its progress. Perhaps it was not the face of a dying man, 
but many observers thought it was. There was something intensely 
pitiful and tear-compelling in the wasted features, and quiet, pas- 
sive manner of the Nation's chief executive, and he was thus driven 
away from his official home, with all the apparent chances largely 
against his return. 

The van was but fairly outside the gate when the horses were 
urged to a lively walk, which occasionally increased to a slow trot, 
the pedestrians meantime keeping well up on the pavements. 
Three policemen walked on either side the wagon to keep the street 
clear ; but there was no attempt at crowding. There was no bois- 
terousness; no unseemly haste to be first; no loud talking. All 
passion was hushed. The agony of the great soul now going forth 
to find health for its encasement, subdued and quieted every thing 
within range of its influence. At one point the President recog- 
nized an acquaintance on the street, and slowly lifting his hand, 
waved a feeble salutation and farewell. At precisely six o'clock 
this sad procession drove alongside the car, specially fitted u]) for 
the martyred Chief Magistrate, the horses were detached, and 
twenty strong and willing hands backed the wagon to the opening 
in the car. Then the attendants lifted the stretcher and entered 
the car with its precious burden. The President was carefully 
adjusted upon his new bed, the foundation of which was a mattress 
of extraordinary thickness, and so constructed that the motion of 
the train could not be felt, a few farewells were said, and then the 



GAZING ON THE SEA.— THE LIGHTNING TRAIN. 619 

train moved slowly and smoothly away. Away, with ioiul hearts 
full of hope, but soon to be surcharged with dismay and griefl 

This seven hours' journey of 233 miles is now historieal, and 
its principal features are full of interest. The train came to a .stop 
in a few minutes after leaving the AVashington depot, to permit an 
approaching train to move out of the way on a siding. " Wliat 
does this mean?" inquired the President. "Only a momentary 
detention," replied Colonel Rockwell. " But important events arc 
ofttimes the issue of a moment," rejoined the suH'erer. This is the 
only conversation he joined in during the trip. The train soon 
proceeded, gradually increasing its speed where the track was 
straight enough to permit, to fifty-five miles an hour, and for a few 
miles after leaving Philadelphia, it actually attained a speed of 
sixty miles an hour. The President was watched very closely 
during the first hour of the journey, in order to detect any symp- 
tom of danger from the excitement of the occasion. To the relief 
and great satisfaction of the physicians, he seemed actually to 
enjoy the ride and to be improving. His pulse, which reached 
118 early in the morning, fell to 110 and then to 108. He did 
not talk. His voice was too feeble to make his words distinguish- 
able amid the noise of the running train, without too much etlort. 
He occasionally inquired the hour, and once or twice desired to 
know the names of stopping places. Beef-tea was the sole nutri- 
ment given him during the journey, and on two occasions he 
relished it like a hungry man. 

At every one of the forty-six cities and towns and vilhiges, 
through which the train passed, great crowds thronged the streets. 
They stood silently, with uncovered heads and eyes wet with tears. 
The grief of the people was too deep for other demonstration. 
Words could not express it, and weeping came unbidih'u. Strong 
men, rough men, weak men and cultivated men; women of :ill 
grades and clas.ses, and even little chihlren, join<d in tlnir 
silent anguish with each other and the worhl, and p<.ured tlu-ir 
lamentation from streaming eyes. In many phices, crowds of 
workingmen left their mills and fi)rgcs as tlie trnin ap|)roachcd, 
and, ranging themselves alongside the track in an orderly line, 



620 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

stood with hats in hands and heads bowed till it passed beyond 
range of their vision. Then they solemnly returned to their 
vocations. There was a feeling of awe beyond expression in the 
mind of every spectator, and to some extent it entered every 
thinking mind in the land. Life and death were in fierce conflict 
upon that lightning train, and the madness of its speed looked 
like an effort to distance the subtle foe of mortality; but it was 
only in appearance. Death had long before marked our noble 
President for his own, with the bullet of the assassin. More than 
sixty days before the date which identifies this cliapter with cur- 
rent history, he was as surely slain at Washington as w^as llichard 
III. at Bosworth, in 1485. Such was, in large measure, the feeling 
of the people. The dark foreboding of calamity began to over- 
shadow them when the foul work of Guiteau's pistol was fljished 
over the land on that fatal second of July, and now their hearts 
were sick with the President's wounds. They felt with him the 
pain, and, without his hopefulness, \saw the beloved head of the 
Nation approaching the last dread extremity, with faith undimmed 
and bravery undaunted. 

It was a time for weeping and anguish and silence. And a 
time for thought. For severe self-examination. For national 
inquiry. A time to find out for what new crime atonement is 
required, in such measure as impoverishes all that is noble, and 
all that is above reproach in our poor world ! Do we ever explore 
the logic of crime until forced to the task ? And the lesson of 
Lincoln's martyrdom — how w^as tliat learned? Had it been re- 
membered, would there have been occasion for this later sacrifice 
upon the altar of political acrimony? 

The lightning train sped onward. A pilot engine preceded it, 
and its passage was a signal to all approaching trains to get out 
of the way and remain silent until the convoy had passed. Trains 
upon side-tracks, W'herever they were encountered, were crowded 
with people, all desirous of obtaining a glimpse of the President, 
but not obtrusive nor demonstrative beyond the overwhelming 
influence of great sorrow. Their silence was more expressive than 
language. It indicated the deepest sympathy, the" profoundest 



GAZING ON THE SEA.— ELBERON. 021 

respect, the heartiest love. On three or four occasions the poor 
sufterer Avavcd his hand feebly to the i)e()i)k^, but the eil'ort was 
painful. The journey was devoid of incident beyond what has 
been related. The train arrived at Elbcron at three minutes past 
1 o'clock, and the transfer of the President from the car to his 
quarters at Francklyn Cottage was promptly made, without trouble 
or disturbance. His room had been elegantly ])rcpared flu- his 
occupancy, and it was made pleasant with many beautiful bouquets 
and rare plants sent by personal friends. The physicians |)ro- 
nounccd the arrangements perfect, and could suggest no inq)rove- 
mcnt. They 'stated that the journey had done the patient no harm, 
although in the official bulletin, issued at 6:30 P. M. on the day 
of arrival at Long Branch, they announced his pulse at 124; tem- 
perature, 101.6; respiration, 18, — a condition not calculated to 
reassure the countrv. 

Pravers had been offered during the day in thousands of churches, 
and by millions of people in their homes and places of business, for 
the restoration of the President. Faith in the efficacy of prayer \ 
seemed to be almost universal, and it is thought that thousands 
upon thousands of people who had never prayed before, made 
Garfield the object of their supplications at the throne of G(k1. 
At a concert of prayer held at the Thirteenth Street Presbyterian 
Church in New York City, which was largely attended by Chris- 
tians of all denominations, the following extract from a letter 
written by the President's pastor in Washington, Rev. Frederick 
D. Power, was read: 

"His life is before the world, a living epistle, to l)e known and read 
of all men. To you I may say he has had the ever-present Conifm-ter, 
the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, during all these weary days 
and nights of suffering. He remembers the Lord's day wh.n it conies ; 
on Sunday morning last, as he opened his eyes to its holy light, he said: 
' This is the Lord's dav ; I have great reverence for it.' He Uikes great 
comfort in prayer. Knowing that my little ehureh was continuin-r dmiy 
in prayer to God for him, he said : ' The dear little ehureh on \ ern.n.it 
Avenue ! They have been carrying me as a great burden so long, but 
when I get up they shall have no cause to regret it.' 



G22 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

" Of his own peril of death he has been mindful, and over 'and over 
again has said: ' I must be prepared for either.' This has been the prin- 
ciple of his life, ruling in all his experience, as he explained it to me: 
' When I meet the duties of each day as best I can, I cheerfully await 
Avhatever result may come.' When he was first stricken he declared: 
' I believe in God, and trust myself in his hands,' and there he is, my 
brethren, and God will keep him, and God will glorify His own great 
name, whether it be in his life or his death. I could say many things, 
but my heart and hands are both too full. He is better to-day, but still 
on the borderland. We are all still besieging the mercy-seat, and we 
expect God's answer w'ith great anxiety, but not, I trust, without great 
faith and submission. 

" In conclusion, I may say in the words of President Garfield to me, 
in a season of like distress — the death of his little son : ' In the hope of 
the Gospel, which is so precious in this afiliction,'I am affectionately your 
brother in Christ." 

The subjoined copies of dispatches are selected from several 
hundred of a similar tenor, as indicative of the general solicitude: 

Executive Chamber, Albany, Sept. 6, 1881. 

For the purpose of enabling the people to unite with those of other States in 
petitioning the Ruler of the Universe for the restoration to health of the President 
of the United States, the 8th day of September, instant, I hereby set apart and 
designate as a day of fasting and prayer. It is recommended that all ordinary 
avocations be suspended, and the people, in their usual places of worship, humbly 
acknowledge their faults and reverently supplicate the mercy of the Heavenly 
Father that the national peril, which now appears so imminent, may be averted. 
Let the prayers of all be united for the early and complete recovery of the Presi- 
dent's health and strength. May the blessing of Almighty God rest upon the 
stricken sufTerer and the afflicted family. 

Given under my hand and seal at the Capitol in the City of Albany, this 6th 
day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighty- 
<^"5- , ^ ' Alonzo B. Cornell. 

By the Governor— Henry E. Abell. 

The meeting for prayer in behalf of the President was largely attended. From 
twenty to twenty-five prayers were offered bv clergvmen and lavmen, which were 
remarkable for their earnestness and importunity. The bulletins announcing the 
departure of the President from the White House and the progress of the train 
were read at the opening and close of the meeting. 

Philadelphia, Sept. 6.— In accordance with the proclamation of the Gov- 
ernor, the churches of the city were generally thrown open, between the hours of 
10 and 12 this morning, for worship for the recoverv of President Garfield. At 
Harrisburg_ business was entirely suspended from 10 o'clock until noon. Services 
were held in the churches and in various industrial establishments. The dis- 



GAZING OX THE SP:A.— THE NATION'S I'T^AYEK. 0-23 

patches relative to the President's journej' were read from a number of pulj)it«. 
In most other phices in the State services were heUl and l)Usinos.s was suspended 
during the liours named. 

Cincinnati, Sept. 6. — The proclamation of Governor Foster was observed by 
meetings for prayer in the Christian churches, and a union inciting was also 
held in the First Presbyterian Church from 10 to 12 o'clock. Tiic public schools 
were dismissed. The Mayor's oflice and all the Guvcrnment oflices were closed, and 
deep interest was felt in regard to the result of the President's journey from 
AVashington to Long Branch. At the Republican County Convention prayer was 
oflered by Dr. Kumler, who made a most fervent petition for the recovery of the 
President. After the prayer, on motion, the convention gave three cheers for 
the President. The convention also adopted a resolution condemning the at- 
tempted assassination, and extending sympatiiy to Mrs. Gartield. 

Columbus, Ohio, Sept. 6. — Religious services were held in several of the churches 
here from 10 to 1- o'clock to-day, and many prayers were ofllred for the recov- 
ery of the President. The bulletin-boards were eagerly watched by anxious 
crowds, and each dispatch telling of the favorable progress in the Presidential 
journey from Washington to Long Branch was joyfully discus.sed. The feeling 
that the President will recover seems to permeate all cla.sses, and nothing but 
hopeful expressions were heard to-day. 

Chicago, Sept. (5. — The church services and union meetings to-day for the jmr- 
pose of invoking Divine aid for the I'rcsidcut's restoration to hearth, were well 
attended and fervently participated in. Business was generally suspended in the 
public offices, business boards, etc. The announcement of the easy trip of tiie 
President to Long Branch and his improved condition, is the subject of great re- 
joicing to thousands who eagerly inquire for accounts of his progress. 

Atlanta, Ga., Sept. 6.— In response to the Governor's proclamation, the Ilall 
of Representatives here was filled to-day with the members of the (Jeneral Assoml)ly 
and citizens, to ofTer up prayers for "the recovery of President (iarfield. Relig- 
ious services were held, and 'addresses and prayers were maile by leatling min- 
isters of the city. 

Wilmington, N. C, Sept. 6.— To-day was very generally observed here as one 
of prayer for the recoverv of the President. Services were held in all the churclKS 
in accordance with the proclamation of the Governor, and between 10 and 12 o clock, 
the hours devoted to religious services, business was almost entirely suspended. A 
feature of the day which attracted some attention was the fact that nearly all the 
bar-rooms were closed. 

Raleigh, N. C, Sept. 6.— In accordance with the Governor's proclamation, to- 
dav was gen'erallv observed here as a dav of prayer for the President. Federal and 
State buildings and offices of manufacturers, etc., were closed. Imprcs.sive sc-rvicc« 
were held at the churches. 

Augusta, Ga., Sept. 6.— The day of prayer was very generally observed here. 
The Mavor issued a proclamation, and all the public. -Hices, banks ami many sl..ieH 
were clo"sed. Services were held in the churches, and prayers ofler.'.! lor liie r.>*to- 
raticm of the Prcsi.lent to health. Some pastors mentioned that the wounding of 
the President had the eflTect of cementing the sections together ius one iK.-ople. 

S\N Fit VNCisro, Sent.fi.— A .special service of jirayer for the recovery of the Presi- 
dent was hehl this morning in the hall of the Youmr Men's <;;»T.Ht.nn AK^oc.n mn. 
The Ministerial Union was present in a body. Every seat in the hall « as occupied, 
and crowds were forced to stand. 

Indianapolls, Sept. 6.— Religious services were held, in oUdicncc to the Gov- 



624 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

ernor's proclamation, in a number of the leading churches to-day, and prayers 
were offered in behalf of the President. Many of tlie business houses were closed 
fi'om 10 to 12 o'clock. 

Cleveland, O., Sept. 6. — Business was generally suspended throughout North- 
ern Ohio between 10 o'clock and noon to-day, while people of all denominations 
gathered in their houses of worship, in town and country, and joined in prayer for 
the restoration of President Garfield to health. 

On the next day, September 7th, the sixty-eighth day after 
the wounding, there was no positive change in the President's 
condition. The early morning dispatches announced : " He is 
no worse than when he left Washington, neither is he any 
better." 

Such a statement was, of course, quite unsatisfactory to the 
country, because, the people argued, " no better " always means 
" worse." There is no neutral ground in a case of this kind. The 
morning bulletin found the pulse at 106; temperature, 98.4; res- 
piration, 1^. In the evening the pulse was 108; temperature, 101; 
respiration, 18. The day was very. warm, the thermometer rang- 
ing from 90° to 100°, and the people were remarkably anxious 
over the reports of the physicians. When it was learned that after 
the issue of the evening bulletin, the pulse ran up to 114, there 
was wide-spread apprehension. The gentle sea-breezes, from which 
so much was expected, were not doing their appointed work. For 
most of the day there was a dead calm of the atmosphere at Long 
Branch, and the temperature was described as almost unbearable 
by people in health. To the sufferer it was wonderfully oppressive, 
and there were apprehensions that, unless change of temperature 
in an abatement of the furnace-like heat soon came, there would 
be reason to conclude that the journey of Tuesday was in vain. 
Every body complained but the President. He proved himself the 
most patient of invalids, and but once during the entire day made 
a remark which indicated any thing like discontent with the situa- 
tion. Opening his eyes from a short nap, he turned them toward 
the windows and said to an attendant, who was fanning him : "Oh, 
those windoAvs are so small." For a few moments he breathed 
laboriously, and his pulse increased to a high rate, and the reaction 
caused unusual weakness. 



GAZING ON THE SEA.-" CONVALESCENCE." 625 

Throughout the day the bulletin-boards at the various nc\v.<- 
paper office.s, aud places of public resort in every j)art of the 
country, were besieged by large crowds of anxious men and women 
of every grade in the social scale, eager iur tlie smaHest scraj) of 
^ information to sustain the earnest prayer of their hearts — that the 
revered President was now upon the sure course of recoverv ; but 
all the facts reported by the physicians pointed to a calamitous 
result. Only their comments were encouraging, and whatever of 
encouragement they conveyed was not accepted by ilie mind »tf 
science. It was seen that the President's bravery had imparted a 
strange degree of assurance to his innnediate attendants, whdse 
reports were unconsciously colored by the mental force rather tiian 
the physical condition of the suiferer; and thus at least nine-tenths 
of his fellow-countrymen were buoyed up with hopes which had 
no foundation beyond the tenacity of a gigantic will. 

So wonderful was the exercise of this mental force by the Pres- 
ident, that on Thursday, September 8, two of his medical attend- 
ants announced his convalescence! Surgeon-General P>arnes, 
Surgeon J. J. AVoodward and Dr. Robert Reyburn liad been 
relieved from duty at Garfield's bedside on the previous day. at 
the wish of the President, as he expressed it, "to relieve them «>1' 
labor and responsibility which, in his improved condition, he couhl 
no longer properly impose upon them." Drs. Bliss and Hamihon 
remained in their professional capacity, and Dr. ]ioynt<.n. Mrs. 
Garfield's physician, in the cai)acity of nurse. Between nine and 
ten o'clock, on the morning of the eighth, a newspaper crrespon- 
dent said to Dr. Bliss: 

"Doctor, you seem to be feeling pretty well tliis morning." 
"I .should think I was; why, the man is convalescent; his pulse is 
now down to ninety-six." 

This announcement was astounding, but as the corrcMi^oiident was en- 
deavoring to settle in his own mind whether tlie doctor was not a Httic 
delirious himself, as a residt of long watching and continued nem.us 
tension, he turned to some persons who a].piuaehed, and wa.i soon n.'^j^iTl- 
iug to them with emphasis, "This is convalescence." The good news 
40 



626 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

traveled Avith marvelous speed. "Dr. Bliss says the President is con- ^ 
valescent," was soon on every lip, but was received with incredulity. 

" We had better wait awhile before we toss up our hats," was the 
comment of a member of the Cabinet. 

As the day wore on, confirmation from every trustworthy source was 
obtained of the good tidings from the sick-room. Before noon Dr. Bliss 
and Dr. Hamilton appeared together on the veranda, and Dr. Bliss re- 
peated his belief that the President was convalescent. "That is good 
news," said a gentleman to Dr. Hamilton. " Yes," was the reply, "and 
it is true." Dr. Boynton came out of the President's cottage about noon 
and strolled toward the edge of the bluff, with his hands behind him 
and with a far-away look in his eyes, which were turned to the east, 
whence the rising breeze was coming and the increasing waves were 
rolling up on the beach at his feet. 

"Doctor, this is a foi-tunate change." 

"Yes; the President is better." 

" You are, of course, hopeful, as all the rest are?" 

" Yes, the change is not enough to base any medical statement of 
improvement upon, but what there is is in the right direction." 

Colonel Rockwell was more emphatic. " Dr. Bliss says the President 
is convalescent. What do you think?" asked a correspondent. 

" Yes," said the Colonel, "Dr. Bliss thinks so. The doctor said to the 
President this morning, in my presence: 'Mr. President, you are con- 
valescent; you are getting out of the woods.' He is certainly doing very 
well and we shall have him propped up before many days. We 
have sent to-day for his reclining chair. It is one of those chairs 
which you can make any thing of, from an upright chair to a bed, and 
is softly cushioned. With a few days more of improvement, we will 
have him up whei-e we can roll him to the windows." 

"And out upon the lawn, too, I presume, after a time?" 

"Well, perhaps." 

"And you will, doubtless, take him to Mentor before many weeks?" 

" Yes, probably he wants to get home, but he enjoys this place very 
well. We turned him on his side this morning, so that he could look 
out over the ocean, and he was very much pleased. He longed to get 
here. Two or three days before we started, I remember a queer remark 
he made. I said to him, 'Mr. President, how would you like to have 
us put you on the Tallapoosa and get you down to the salt water?' ' That 



GAZING ON THE SEA.— HIGH HOPES. <j"27 

would be temporary, tentative and unsettled,' he said ; ' juit me on the 
cars and take me to Long Branch.'" , 

"Does he read the papers?" 

" No; but he could. YesU}rday I read to him a number of dispatches 
we had just received. Here is one of them now." Tlie Colonel drew 
from his pocket a telegram, which he read as follows : 

" PiTTSFiELD, Mass., Septenilx^r 7. 
" To President Garfield, Long Branch: 

"The Garfield and Arthur Club, of Pittsfield, and people of the town, willioiit 
regard to party lines, in Berkshire County, to whose hospitalities you were coming 
when so brutally assailed, and where thousands of r>erkslure liearts were waiting 
to welcome you, all unite in congratulations on your safe arrival at the sea-shore. 
All hope for your speedy recoTery, and to-day the shire town suspends business to 
meet and ask the Great Healer to be with you and make efficacious the itlbrtii of 
your earthly physicians. ' Officebs AND Members 

of the Garfield and Arthur Club, and many others." 

"The President," continued Colonel Rockwell, "was greatly pleased 
by the kind expressions in the telegram, and bade me telegraph his 
thanks." 

Dr. Hamilton, in conversation with Dr. Pancoast, spoke very 
encouragingly of the prospects, saying, in effect, that he had the 
strongest hopes of recovery. Celebrations and thanksgivings to 
signalize the joy of the people, were freely discussed. The aj)- 
parent change for the better caused a rebound in popular .-cnii- 
ment, which was quite disproportioned to its cause. Aliu?! it had 
no foundation whatever. 

At 8:30 iu the morning the President's pulse indicated 1<»4; 
temperature, 98.7; respiration, 18. At 6:30, evening, pulse 
100; temperature, 9'J.l ; respiration, 18. Dr. Bliss declared 
most emphatically that the favorable symptoms would continue. 
At 10:30 p. M. Secretary Blaine cabled this hopeful message: 

"Lowell, Minider, London: 

" The President's rest wa.s much broken during tlu' first half of hust 
night, but to-day his condition has been more favorahle. Ilf ha-l less 
fever this afternoon than for several days past; has hotter pulse and im- 
proved aj.petite. His surgeons are much encouraged. His comfort has 
been promoted by a decided change in the weath<T. Thermometer at 
this hour (10: 30) 75° Fahrenheit; yesterday it wa« 1)5°. " 



Y 628 



LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



In many of the States, in response to the prodamations of 
their GovernorSi^ the people gathered at their places of worship 
and offered prayer for the recovery of the Chief Magistrate. 
In many cities business was almost wholly suspended for this 
service, and there was hearty supplication every-Avhere for the 
Divine blessing upon the languishing President. Faith in 
prayer seemed to have become universal, and certainly the sen- 
timents which accompanied this faith are an honor to human- 
ity and a solace to the world. 

Friday, September 9th, was regarded as " a day of favorable 
progress," and the rapid convalescence of the President was con- 
fidently announced. The cool atmosphere seemed to invigorate 
him, and his appetite was fair. The physicians announced a de- 
cided improvement, but the morning bulletin did not create a 
sanguine feeling in non-professional minds, and the more cautious 
were scarcely satisfied with 'the symptoms, but preferred to 
await further developments before resting in the belief that the 
favorable change would not be interrupted by some unforeseen 
complication. ^N'aturally, the immediate attendants upon the 
President exhibited a more decided opinion that the improvement 
was likely to be permanent, than did persons not so intimately 
connected with the case. Assurance from those having access 
to the patient's room, that he was much better than before leav- 
ing AYashington, was very generally and gratefully accepted. 

At 8: 30 A. M. his pulse was 100; temperature, 98.5; respira- 
tion, 17. At noon there was scarcely a notable change. At 
6 p. M., pulse,. 100; temperature, 98.8; respiration, 18. At 10 
P.M. Secretary Blaine cabled the subjoined dispatch: 

' ' Lowell, Minister, London : 

"The medical reports are all favorable to-day — morning, noon, and night. 
The President has not for many weeks done so well for so many consecutive 
hours. He has had very little fever ; his respiration has been normal, and 
his pulse has not exceeded 100. He slept without opiates, and gained 
strength without stimulants. His nights are not so restful as could be de- 
sired ; but in the twenty-four hours he gets sufficient sleep. The weather, 
though not excessively warm, continues suhry and oppressive. Much is 



GAZING ON THE SEA.— DELUSIVE IIOI'ES. G29 '^ 

hoped from the clear, bracing air wliich nuiY he expected lierc at tliis 
season." 

On the same evening, Attorney-General MacYcagli oxjiresfscd 
his views in these words: "At present everything looks favor- 
able, and of course we hope that what has been gained will hr 
maintained and added to, but the difliculty is, the President's 
blood is in an unhealthy condition, and until he recuperates 
sufficiently to overcome any bad effects of blood-poi.soning, it is 
not safe to be sanguine." He thought, furthermore, that the 
President would convalesce in ten days. This was the Otli of 
September. Of course he could not foresee the 19th, and we 
must not anticipate that memorable date. 

Saturday, September 10th, was the seventy-first day of the 
President's suffering, and it was pronounced " a satisfactory 
day" by Dr. Bliss. lie expressed the opinion tluit tlie wound 
was healing from the bottom. The temperature was one degree 
higher than on the previous day, and this was the only change 
noted in the bulletins. But there was an undercurrent of ap- 
prehension more significant than any thing which ajipearcd in 
print. The people had learned from an unofficial and niuuithori- 
tative source that the President was worse, and that blood- 
poisoning had shown itself in very alarming symptoms. L'n- 
fortunatcly, this information was true. At 8 : 30 a. m. the pulse 
wag 104; temperature, 99.4; respiration, 18. At noon, pulse, 
100; temperature, 98.5; respiration, 18. At 5:30 p. .m.. pulse, 
100; temperature, 98.7; respiration, 18. Secretary I'.lainc ca- 
bled as follows, at 10 p. m. : 

" LowEiJ>, ^fhmter, London: 

"After dispatch of last night the President had considerable increase of 
fever. Indeed, a rise of pulse and trinpcrature every uiglit lias lu-conx' 
a significant feature in his case. Through the d.rv, and csiK^cially 
this afternoon, he has grown more comfortable. A cold easterly .«tonu 
has prevailed since early morning without evil AXwX thus far on his con- 
dition. Secretary Windom had a brief interview with the President at 
noon. He found him much reduced in strength, but clear in his Mun.l. 



'■ 630 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAliFIELD. 

He asked the Secretary about the success of the refuudiog of the public 
debt." 

Sunday, September lltli, was a day of anxiety. The Presi- 
dent was unmistakably worse. It was ascertained that a por- 
tion of the matter discharged from the mouth was not pus from 
the parotid gland, as had been supposed, but pus from a badly 
diseased lung. The situation was regarded as critical, and es- 
pecially so when the patient's cough returned with considera- 
ble violence. At 8:30 p. m. his pulse was 104; temperature, 
98.8; respiration, 19. At noon, pulse, 110; temperature, 100; 
respiration, 20. At 5:30 p. m., pulse, 110; temperature, 100.6; 
respiration, 20. Tne increase in respiration w^as attributed to 
the affection of the lungs. At 10 : 30 p. m. Secretary Blaine ca- 
bled the following report : 

"Lowell, Minister, London: 

"The President had an increase of fever last night and was very restless 
until 5 o'clock a. m. During the day he has been somewhat better, but 
his pulse, temperature, and respiration have been higher for the entire twen- 
ty-four hours than on any preceding day since he reached Long Branch. 
His other symptoms are not reassuring, and his general condition gives 
rise to anxiety." 

Monday, September 12th, was pronounced "a favorable day." 
A decided improvem.ent in the President's symptoms was re- 
ported by the attending physicians, who pronounced the anxi- 
ety of the previous day "a senseless panic." The lung diffi- 
culty was spoken of as of little importance now that it was 
understood, except by Dr. Boynton, who contended very 
strongly that it was an effect of blood-poisoning. Yet he 
thought the President's vitality sufficient to overcome any seri- 
ous results from it, provided no further complication of a similar 
nature occurred. At 8:30 a. m. his pulse was 100; tempera- 
ture, 98.4; respiration, 18. At noon, pulse, 106; temperature, 
99.2; respiration, 20. At 5:30 p. m., pulse, 100 ; temperature, 
98.6; respiration, 18. At 2: 30 p. m. the following message was 
cabled by Secretary Blaine : 



?y, 



GAZING ON THE SEA.-IN THE EASY CHAIR. 031 

"Lowell, Minister, London: 

"The President slept well la-st night, and his condition to-day is more 
comfortable and more favorable. During my absence for a short time Dr. 
Agnew or Dr. Hamilton will send you a daily report." 

At 10 P. M. Attorney-General MacVeagh sent, by cable, the 
following dispatcli: 

"Lowell, Minider, London: 

"Li the absence of Mr. Blaine, the attending physicians have requested 
me to inform you of the President's condition. He has during the day 
eaten sufficient food with relish, and has enjoyed at intervals refreshing 
sleep. His wound and the incisions made by the surgeons all look better. 
The parotid gland has ceased suppuration, and may be considered as sui)- 
stantially well. He has exhibited more than his usual cheerfulness of 
spirits. His temperature and respiration are now normal, and his pulse 
is less frequent and firmer than at the same hour last evening. Not- 
withstanding these ftivorable symptoms, the condition of the lower part 
of the right lung will continue to be a source of anxiety for some days 
to come." 

Tuesday, September 13th, tlie seventy-fourth day of the Pres- 
ident's suiFering, was uneventful, except that at 11 a. m. he was 
placed in a senii-recumbent position upon an easy chair where 
he remained half an hour without fatigue or discomfort. In 
reply to a question by Dr. Bliss, President Garfield said he ex- 
perienced no pain and did not even feel tired. At 8:30 .\. .m. 
the pulse was 100 ; temperature, 99.4 ; respiration, 20. At noon, 
pulse, 100; temperature, 98.8; respiration, 20. vVt 5:30 v. m. 
pulse, 100; temperature, 98.4; respiration, 20. A favorable re- 
port was cabled by Attorney-General MacVeagh to Minister 
Lowell. 

"Still gaining ground slowly," was the report f^)r Wednesday, 
September 14th. It was announced that the patient suffered from 
a septic infection of the blood, but this was not believed to be 
very serious. Dr. Boynton was the only ])hysician who expressed 
much anxiety about it, and bis views were invariably soothed by 
the belief that the President's robust coustitutiou wouhl eventually 



It G 

)h- 632 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

conquer all his physical complications. At 8 : 30 A. M. the pulse 
was 100; temperature, 98.4; respiration, 19. At noon, pulse 104; 
temperature, 98.8; respiration, 20. At 5:30 p. m., pulse 112; tem- 
perature, 99.2; respiration, 21. The bulletins looked sufficiently- 
unfavorable, but the physicians viewed them with complaisance. 
Dr. Boynton, however, informed a reporter that the pulse frequently 
reached 120, but this fact was kept from the family and the public. 
At 10 o'clock Attorney-General MacVeagh reported as follows: 

" LoAVELL, Minister, London: 

"There is an increase this evening in the President's temperature, 
pulse, and respiration; but it is so slight as not necessarily to indicate 
that the condition of the blood is producing any new complications. 
The trouble in the right lung is not increasing, and is causing him less 
annoyance. He has taken adequate nourishment, and his sleep has 
been natural and refreshing ; so that, if he has gained nothing, he has 
probably lost nothing during the day." 

On Thursday, September 15th, '^slight progress toward recovery" 
was reported. The surgeons concluded not to admit that the septic 
condition of the patient's blood amounted to pyaemia, and they 
expressed confidence that the difficulty would be overcome. The 
President took food in variety, but not with a strong appetite. 
In the early morning hours he was quite wakeful, and gave way 
to fits of despondency. In one of these he called aloud to an at- 
tendant: "Save me; don't let me sink." Words of encourage- 
ment were uttered, but fir a time he could not bring himself to 
believe that he yet had hope of recovery. " I fear bringing me 
here will prove but a roaring farce after all," said he. He was 
not readily reassured, and the incident was not regarded as favora- 
ble. Still the physicians and newspaper correspondents sent outi 
fair reports to the country, and the people were therefore quite 
unprepared for the events so near at hand. At 8:30 A. m. the 
pulse was 100; temperature, 98.4; respiration, 20. At noon, pulse 
102; temperature, 98.9; respiration, 21. At 5:30 p. m., pulse 104; 
temperature, 99.2; respiration, 21. Attorney-General MacVeagh 
reported to Minister Lowell that all the symptoms were substan- 



GAZING ON THE SEA.-SINKING. G33 

tially the same as on the previous day, exco[)t that tlic expectora- 
tion from the right hmg was rather less tliitieult and less profuse. 
Friday, Septend)er l(3th, was a day of " unfavorable symptoms." 
Great anxiety was experienced by the immediate friends of the 
honored sufferer, and the physicians acknowledged the gravity of 
the occasion. His physical weakness had never before been so 
apparent, and his utter exhaustion seemed ominous of the end. 
Those who had never before questioned his ability to rallv, now 
began to doubt it; and, when it was found that the pulse fre- 
quently reached 130 beats, intelligent men and women were struck 
with wonder at the persistent vitality of the man. At 8 : 30 a. m. 
the^pulse was 104; temperature, 98.6; respiration, 21. At noon, 
pulse 116; temperature, 09.8; respiration, 21. At 5:30 v. m., 
pulse 104; temperature, 98.6; respiration, 22. Attorney-General 
MacVeagh cabled as follows: 

"Lowell, 3Iinister, London: 

"There has been no very marked change in the President's condition, 
hut it is not at this hour reassuring. The diflcrcnt synn)tonis are almost 
all slightly aggravated. The temperature and the pulse have fluctuated 
more than usual, and tlie respiration is rather more frequent, while the 
character of the discharges continues to be unsatisfactory. There is, 
therefore, a sensible increase of anxiety." 

Saturday, September 17th, was "a day of deep anxiety." The 
President was worse. He was sinking beyond reach of the strong 
arm of science and the willing hands of love, never to be re- 
claimed by earthly agencies. A chill, continuing half :iti hniir, 
was followed by perspiration and a rapid rise of temperature The 
situation was alarming, although the immediate effeets of the ciiill 
did not appear as serious as might have been expected, — f>r th.- 
pulse fell, in a few hours, from 120 to 102, the temperature from 
102 to 98, and the respiration from 24 to 18. These were i)lie- 
nomenal changes. Yet the word "rigor," as translated in the 
medical vocabularv, is invested with nameless terrors, ainl tho 
condition of the patient was assumed, on all sides, to be i>rccan- 
ous in the extreme. The attx^nding physicians were startled, but 



634 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

they did not fail to predict another rally, and a decided improve- 
ment in a few days. They did not seem to realize that the crisis 
was upon them, and the country certainly did not. The Attorney- 
General cabled to Minister Lowell that " the situation is now prob- 
ably more grave and critical than at any time heretofore." 

Sunday, September 18th, was marked by a decided increase of 
fear and anxiety. Another chill, but of shorter duration, was one 
of the uutoward incidents of the day. Dr. Bliss declared that the 
frequent recurrence of chills would soon wear out the President's 
life, but he hoped to devise some means to prevent them. Dur- 
ing this last attack the President's pulse reached 134, possibly 140. 
Dr. Boynton had some clear ideas regarding the case. On Sun- 
day night he said: 

"The President's condition to-day, compared with yesterday, shows a 
slight improveraeut." 

" Do you not think the low pulse and temperature of last night and 
this morning were favorable indications?" 

" I do not. The low pulse and temperature, the sound sleep, and the 
freedom from cough and expectoration were indications of a very low 
state of vitality, and can not be considered as favorable symptoms. If 
he grows stronger, there will be a rise in the pulse and temperature, and 
his cough and expectoration will return." 

" Is it true that you stated last night that the President's condition 
was hopeless ? " 

" No, sir. I said his case was extremely critical, but not hopeless." 

" What is your opinion to-night?" 

•' The same as last night. For several weeks he has at times made 
satisfactory progress, but, in each instance, the improvement has been 
followed by a relapse, which left him on a lower plane of vitality than 
before. This feature of his case is peculiar to most cases of chronic 
pyaemia. The President has a wonderful constitution, but it is doubt- 
ful if it is sufficient to carry him on to recovery." 

This conversation is interesting from the fact that it shows the 
very correct logic of one of the President's most intimate atten- 
dants only twenty-four hours preceding the final catastrophe. Dr. 
Bliss was slightly more confident than Dr. Boynton. No points 



X 



GAZING ON TIIE SEA.-vSEPTEMBER 19Tir. G3o 

are given from the physicians' bulletins, for the reason tluit it was 
thought best on Sunday to suppress some of the more unfavorable 
indications, and the bulletins are therefore not history. At 10 
p. M., Attorney-General MacVeagh cabled the following: 

"Lowell, Minister, London: 

"The President passed a comparatively quiet and comfortiible day, but 
this evening he had another chill of less duration than that of yesterday, 
but sufficient to increase the very great anxiety already existing. He 
has also been slowly growing weaker, and his present condition excites 
tlie gravest apprehensions." 

We approach the record of Monday, September 19, with great 
reluctance. It is not easy to transcribe it in these pages in such 
way as will do full justice to the subject for the American people ; 
because, first, its facts are so incredible as to appear quite outside 
the range of history ; and, second, the people, the great masses, can 
not yet understand how their beloved President could be so foully 
murdered without the swift annihilation of the murderer. The 
human mind does not always remember that the methods of jus- 
tice must be quite distinct and wholly dissimilar from those of 
crime, and that the cause of law and order is promoted by this 
distinction. And possibly it will never be taught to remember this 
lesson invariably. 

Upon this fateful Monday morning, the President was prostrated 
by a severe chill, called "rigor" by the physicians. It proved to 
be weakening beyond precedent. During its continuance, tlie pulse 
ran up to 143, and for a long time remained above 140. It de- 
creased gradually in the aft/3rnoon, and when it was found that 
there was no recurrence of the chill in the evening, the promise 
of a restful night was thought to be good. The physicians were 
not agreed as to the responsible cause of the patient's crisis. I )r. 
Boynton lost his hopeful tone early in the day, but Dr. Bliss re- 
mained comparatively sanguine till the last moment. No one im- 
mediately connected with the case anticipated the death of the 
sufferer, however, for several days yet, and it was remarked that 
even Mrs. Garfield, although greatly fatigueil, was i)y no means 



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23 CO W+- CI 51. (?» lvr<™* 



GAZING ON TIIE SEA.— A STARTLED NATION. 



037 



His 



liud ^vas bright, 
le dressing of 



despondent. She couhl not realize that death ^vas even then rob- 
bing her of her heart's dearest treasure. 

The President rested quietly during the afternoon, and it was 
found that he had rallied from the effect of the chill in a manner 
t o surprise the 
physicians, 
mi 

the wound did not 
fatigue him, and 
after it was over 
he asked for a 
hand-glass, taking 
which he examin- 
ed his face and 
said he could not 
understand how 
he should *be so 
Avcak when he 
looked so bright. 
This was at 6 P.M. 
Dr. Bliss remark- 
ed, that after such 
a rallying there 
was hope, but the 
trouble was want 
of strength. Af- 
ter the closest ex- 
amination, the surgeons said it was possible inr thr pati.nt to ivc 
a week, even granting that present conditions were t-. eM.ry him 
off. Drs. Bliss, Agnew, and Hamilton, all concurred in this view, 
and it was sent out to the country in th.- dispatches ol the a.s(>- 
ciated press. Although such a message was designed tn be pa.'i- 
fving, people every-where were startled. It was a virtual n>nees- 
sion that all hope of recovery had been al)and<.ne.l, and that the 




GENERAL D. O. SWAIM. 



638 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

clouds of death were already lowering. But there was something 
infinitely more startling to come shortly. 

At 10 p. M., while the President was asleep, General Swaim no- 
ticed that his limbs were cold. To warm them, he procured a 
flannel cloth, heated it at the fire and laid it over the knees. He 
heated another cloth and laid it over the President's right hand, 
and then sat down beside the bed. The sad occurrences of the 
night are thus related in General Swaim's words : 

"I was hardly seated when Dr. Boynton came in and felt the Presi- 
dent's pulse. I asked him how it seemed to him. He replied : ' It is not 
as strong as it was this afternoon, hut very good.' I said: ' He seems to 
be doing well.' ' Yes,' he answered, and passed out. He was not in the 
room more than two minutes. 

"Shortly after this the President awoke. As he turned his head on 
awakening, I arose and took hold of liis hand. I was on the left hand 
side of the bed as he lay. I remarked : ' You have had a nice comfort- 
able sleep.' 

"He then said, '0 Swaim, this terrible pain,' placing his right hand 
on his breast about over the region of the heart. I asked him if I could 
do any thing for him. He said, ' Some water.' I went to the other side 
of the room and poured about an ounce and a half of Poland water into 
a glass and gave it to him to drink. He took the glass in his hand, I 
raising his head as usual, and drank the water very naturally. I then 
handed the glass to the colored man, Daniel, who came in during the 
time I was getting the water. Afterward I took a napkin and wiped his 
forehead, as he usually perspired on awaking. He then said, ' O Swaim, 
this terrible pain — press your hand on it.' I laid my hand on his chest. 
He then threw both hands up to the sides and about on a line with his 
head, and exclaimed: 'O Swaim, can't you stop this?' And again, '0 
Swaim ! ' 

*' I then saw him looking at me with a staring expression. I asked 
him if he was suffering much pain. Receiving no answer, I repeated the 
question, with like result. I then concluded that he was either dying 
or was having a severe spasm, and called to Daniel, who Avas at the door, 
to tell Dr. Bliss and Mrs. Garfield to come immediately, and glanced at 
the small clock hanging on the chandelier nearly over the foot of his bed 
and saw that it was ten minutes past 10 o'clock. Dr. Bliss came in within 



GAZING ON THE SEA.-LAST SCENE OF ALL. G^JO 

two or three minutes. I told Daniel to l)ring the liglit. A liglitcd candle 
habitually sat behind a screen near the door. When the light shone full on 
the President's face I saw that he was dying. When Dr. Bliss came in a mo- 
ment after, I said : ' Doctor, have you any stimulants? he seems to be dying.* 
He took hold of the President's wrist, as if feeling for his pulse, and said : 
'Yes, he is dying.' I then said to Daniel: 'Run and arouse the house.' 
At that moment Colonel Rockwell came in, when Dr. Bliss said : ' T>'t 
us rub his limbs,' which we did. In a very few moments Mrs. (Jarfii-ld 
came in, and said : ' What does this mean ? ' and a moment after exclaimed : 
'Oh, why am I made to suffer this cruel wrong?' At 10:30 r. m. the 
sacrifice was complete. He breathed his last calmly and peaceably." 

The great President was dead! It could not be realized at the 
moment, and yet within the ten minutes succeeding his demise tiie 
bells in a hundred cities were tolling his solemn knell. Long be- 
fore the morning light of the 20tli illumined the earth, the hearts 
of millions throughout the world were heavy with the tidings. 

Dead ! whispered the wires with lightning haste. Dead I clanged 
the bells, with their brazen tongues. Dead! was echoed arouud 
the world, from lip to lip, until the mournful chorus resounded in 
a wail of heart-piercing agony. Dead! dead! dead! exclaimed all 
the people. But not so. Garfield will live forever in the better 
thoughts of those who loved him, and who are made better for 
having loved him. The brave heart, the open hand, the great 
soul, generous and true — these will bless the world for evermore ! 
Garfield is deathless. 

"No man was better prepared for death," remarked a prominent 
member of his Cabinet. " Xo, sir, nor for life, which re.piires in- 
finitely superior preparation," may be safely responded. The life 
which he lived required the practice of all the virtues; the cruci- 
fixion of all the vices; bravery of the severest type; gentleness, 
trust, and clear-cut integrity. Practice had perfected in him these 
rules of life, and for many years he had furnished an example ot 
purity and probity for his fellow-men. This is not taken away witli 
the removal of the body. It can not be taken away. Th.- i>agrs 
of history will be brightened with it as long as I'lninent worth re- 
mains the goal of human ambition. 



640 LIFE OF JAMZS A. GAEFIELD. 

His removal has chastened and sweetened the national life. 
The hearts of all men, fixjm everv party, have been drawn together 
in a common brotherhood, and the country to a man denounces 
and resents " the deep damnation of his taking off." Ever}' differ- 
ence is aimihilated in the presence of the universal bereavement. 
His death forced a cry of grief from the pained heart of every man 
and woman in Christendom who loves good deeds, and reveres the 
example of an honest life : who admires the power to withstand 
trial, to bear suffering, and to confront danger ; who reveres those 
that possess the courage of their convictions, however resisted by 
menace and scorn. Xo mourning was ever before so universal, so 
heartfelt, so spontaneous, so lasting. Every consideration of btisi- 
ness, of pleasure, of political preferment, of social enjoyment, of 
speculation, of whatsoever men and women were engaged in, gave 
way at once to the general lamentation. These things were most 
observable in our own land, but in some measure they prevailed 
in every ci\'ilized country, and extended even to the isles of the 
sea. His had been a precious life to his own people for many years. 
It has become precious to all the world's millions now, and will 
remain so through all the ages. 

He proved himself a hero many times and on many tr^'ing oc- 
casions before his eighty days of heroic endurance of the assassin's 
stroke : but never was there a brighter example of Christian for- 
titude and uncompromising submission than that ftimished by him 
during those eighty days. And never was there any thing more 
heroic and queenly than the devotion of his noble wife from the 
beginning to the close of this eventftil period. Where is there a 
grander picture of womanhood than Mrs. Garfield? The history 
of neither ancient nor modern times ftirnishes its superior. ^Vliat 
was position to her, with its pride and circumstance, when placed 
in the balance with love and dutv ? Elevation to the place of the 
most envied woman in the land — the leader of society- at the Xa- 
tional Capital — she practiced that grand simplicity which made her 
the fit companion for the eminently practical and busy President 
whQe in health, and, when overtaken by his great calamity, nursed 
him day and night with unceasing devotion. "What example could 



GAZING ON THE SEA.— THE HEROIC WIFE. 641 

be more admirable than this for the women oi" tlic present af;e? 
Well may great queens acknowledge this true woman their [n-vr, 
and treat her as a sister. 

For the two weeks at Long Branch, and probablv fur other 
weeks at Washington, he was kept alive by the indoniital)le 
power of his owm will and the gentle care of those who loved 
him better than life. The " little woman " to whom he sent 
his love before the first shock of his wound had suljsided, was 
the prominent object in his heart of hearts, and well has she 
proved her title to the place she occupied there. Well did she 
remember her vow to love, honor, and cherish, in sickness anil in 
health, till death. With what faithfulness, with what untiring 
devotion and pathetic zeal was that vow kept; and how holy must 
be the associations which now cluster around every act and every 
aspiration of the womanly faith and love which animated the nol)le 
wife in her hour of trial. History furnishes no more j^romincnt 
example of devoted affection, forgctfulness of self, sacrifice of all 
comfort, carelessness of every thing except the poor sufferer u])on 
the bed of pain. He w^as her only object in life. And to him, 
she was the bright star of destiny, the ever-present angel of hope, 
the trusty sentinel upon the ramparts of eternity, who menaced 
and kept at bay the arch-enemy, death. Her faith and Ix.pe and 
love were the medicaments which sustained him through all those 
weary days, when the services of physicians became as naught in 
the process of healing. No one could perform for him the tender 
offices of nursing so well as she ; no voice so sweet as hers ; no hand 
so gentle nor so ready to anticipate his wants. In those other years, 
when they toiled together for the mental, moral, and material ad- 
vancement of themselves and their children, and knew little of the 
gay world, he learned this; and now, when th<y had reached the 
summit of the loftiest earthly ambition, and she, i)y right as well as 
courtesy, was acknowledged the first lady in the land, he still found 
her the same faithful nurse, with the old devotion to her wifely <luty 
which makes the true woman an angel of mercy, and of more worth 
in the chamber of sickness than any physician. She never left him m 
all those weary days of pain, and sJie it was who, on many occasions, 



642 



LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



brought him back to consciousness and life by tender care, when 
it seemed to others that the slender thread which bound him to 
earth was too weak longer to hold. 




THE LAST LOOK AT THE SEA. 



Her loving devotion under these conditions was the subject of 
daily encomiums ; and even the medical attendants were unanimous 
in according her the first praise for attentions which were more 
important to the patient tlian any they could render. Without her 
soothing ministrations, it is thought the life of the President would 
have been much abridged ; and when it is remembered that this toil 
was constant, day by day, without intermission, except a few hours 



GAZING ON THE SEA.-A SORROWFUL PICTURE. 643 

for sleep, wholly self-abnegating, and to the exclusion of all 
thoughts for her own health or comfort, she may well be cited as 
one of the noblest examples of true wifehood in any age or coun- 
try. The ancients were filled with admiration at the devotion of 
Penelope to Ulysses. How weak and tame is the example wh.n 
compared with that which now causes American womanhood to be 
60 lovingly reverenced ! 

That is indeed a sorrowful picture where the President, IV.uii 
his room at Elberon, takes his last view of the sea. Those calm 
eyes surveyed the mighty waters, whose lashings are regular as the 
movement of the pendulum, with sensations which will never 
be known, for he was wholly absorbed in meditation. Once 
or twice he turned to the faithful wife with a smile upon his at- 
tenuated features, but nothing referring to the scene or the sit- 
uation was said by either. With his hand locked in hers, they 
communed in spirit, conscious of the presence of God in His 
works and in His mercy. The anxiety of the people for the great 
President was not shared by himself, except as his sympathies were 
now, as always, with the people; but who shall describe tlu' agony 
of the poor wife as she noted the weakness, daily increasing, of the 
noble form upon which, for so many joyous years, she had leaned 
for support ? Who shall depict her anguish as she now realized 
that the sea breezes, Avhich had brought so much health f<tr oth- 
ers, could bring none to her languishing husband? Whatever 
may have been the hopes of the country, there were no hopes (»f 
recovery in this sick chamber now, — only prayers, and possibly 
something like a dream of a miracle — yearned for, but impossible. 
What picture can be more saddening, or convey a deeper meaning 
in its illustration of a holy presence in the chamber of pain, than 
that individualized by the wife of the President ! 

The name of Lucretia Garfield will remain linked indissolubly 
with that of the great soul whose love she honored, so long as 
wifely heroism is honored of man. In his youth, in the days of 
his poverty, she' made him rich with the countless wealth of iier 
woman's love. She pointed the way to a great future. To her 
careful management and sound advice is mii<h of his early -. e 



fvS 



644 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

to be attributed. Standing beside him at the coronation of his 
ambition, in the hour of his glory, she looked upon him with a 
pride beyond language, as, under such conditions, what wife would 
not; but in the dark days, which measured the period from July 
2d to September 20th, and ended so deplorably to her and the coun- 
try, it was a wifely love, destitute of all vainglory, with which, in 
full view of Christendom, she ministered, as only angels do, to the 
wounded form of her dying husband. No picture could be more 
pathetic, more instructive, more valuable as an example to all 
women of this day and coming ages ; and it will be so remem- 
bered. Garfield's struggle for a life that had become historic for its 
manly courage, was brave indeed; but with the history of that 
struggle there must forever be associated the imperishable name of 
a wife as great as he in all that makes greatness worth living or 
dying for in the eyes of men. " Man is the image and glory of 
God, but the woman is the glory of the man." 

Now the land was covered with a pall. The insignia of mourning 
greeted the eye everywhere. It was the spontaneous expression of 
the people, without premeditation or system. Concert of action in 
a matter where every one moved upon the instant was not feasi- 
ble; but it was as if the President were lying dead in every hab- 
itation. Prompted by a sentiment which defies analysis, but which 
sprang from that wearisome vigil at his bedside; from those long 
weeks of testing his pulse, listening to his breathings, and won- 
dering at his courage ; from hope deferred, gloom, despair, death — 
it agitated the depths of universal humanity, and impelled a re- 
sponse to the holiest dictates of every heart. Notwithstanding the 
all-pervading grief, the demonstration was wonderful and without 
a parallel. Quite as wonderful for its universality as for any of 
its physical conformations. A poor widow, in a Western city, draped 
her doorway with her one black dress. She had no other means of 
joining in the general expression of grief. Doubtless many other 
widows did the same thing for exactly the same reason. Others, 
who had not even a decent dress, hung out a single yard of black 
muslin, or a less quantity of crape. The poor made as emphatic 
expression of their grief as the wealthy, and the humblest offer- 



GAZING ON THE SEA.— ILLIMITABLE (JKIKF. 045 

ing of honest poverty invariably carried to the heart of the ol)- 
servera deeper pathos than the ornate decorations with which the 
rich man syniboled his himentation. This is not said in a spirit 
of criticism, but to record a fact which is a part of this history, 
and which teaches a lesson germane to its object. 

Not in this country alone were these things prominent, but they 
were part of the mourning of every land that regards the usages 
of civilization ; and wherever there is recognition of mental and 
moral worth, there was heartfelt grief at the death of (iarfield. 
The world missed him. He occupied a place of great responsibil- 
ity, which no one could be better fitted for. His administration 
gave promise of good results. He Avas anxious to do good for the 
sake of good, rather than for popularity. He Avas resolved to do 
right regardless of those who might stand in his path. He did every 
thing in his power that he believed to be right. He opposed, with 
all his might, every thing he believed to be wrong. He was a just 
man and forgiving, with no hooks upon which to hang grudges. He 
was a Christian statesman — the highest type of a chief executive. 
How much the country lost in his death will never be computed. 
It is beyond estimate. It is more than any one has yet attempted 
to figure out. The sum of such a man's value is quite beyond the 
reach of mathematics. It can not be measured; therefore grief 
for his loss is illimitable. 



646 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



CHAPTER XY. 

THE SOLEMN PAGEANT. 

There he lies dead beside the moaning sea! 

The days of watching and the nights of pain, 
The burning flush, the keen anxiety, 

The ebb and flow of hope, the blinding rain 

Of bitter tears that came and came again, — 
All, all are ended ! O'er the sighing deep 

Floats on the solemn air a sad, low strain, 
A mournful dirge that seems to sob and weep ! 
O Nation, take your dead and lay him down to sleep ! 

THE President was dead. The curtain had fallen at last 
between an anxious people and- the first citizen of the 
Republic. It only remained for fifty millions of freemen to 
take him up with tender hands and bear him away to the nar- 
row house prepared for all living. It was a sad duty which 
the Nation was not likely to neglect or leave to others to 
perform. 

In the preparations made for the President's funeral there 
was neither passion nor excitement. When C?esar fell there 
was an uproar. The benches of the Senate House were torn 
up by the maddened populace to make a pyre for the burning 
of the dead Imperator's body. We have improved upon all 
that. The temperate spirit and self-restraint of the American 
people promise well for the perpetuity of the Republic. How- 
ever much cause there may be for anger and alarm, it 
is not likely that our institutions will ever be endangered by 
an outburst of popular fury. 

The shutters of Francklyn cottage were closed. The sun's 
face wofe a coppery tint as he came up from the sea to look 
on the scene of death. The wind, which had blown stormily 



THE SOLEMN PAGEANT.-SAD PREPARATIONS. 647 

for a week, fell to a calm. A Sq.teiulxT haze tilled tlic air 
and sky, and an indescribable quiet settled over the lony, low 
shores of Jers^-. With the rising of the sun a single crait iai- (.ut 
at sea, floating, as it seemed, on notliing, broke the line (.f 
the horizon. 

At the cottage the silence of death prevailed. At a little 
distance, on all sides, armed sentinels, Avitli fixed Ijayonets, 
j)aced their beats, guardians of the border line between now 
and hereafter, beyond which the living might not pass. Tiie 
flag, which, since the arrival of the President at Elberon, had 
been floating from a pole thrust out of an ni)i)er window of 
the cottage, was draped with black; but beyond this som- 
ber signal no outward sign of mourning was apparent. The 
first comers were the journalists; but in their demeanor the 
customary eagerness of competition was no longer apitarent. 
Fifty millions of people would, before niglit, read the truths 
which these reporters had come to gather, but their subject 
of inquiry was now death rather than life; and their demeanor 
was calm and respectful in tliat shadowy presence. 

At half-past 10, Secretaries Windom, Kirkwood, and TTunt and 
Postmaster-General James arrived at Elberon, and were invited 
at once to the Attorney-General's cottage, situated about as far 
to the north-east of the hotel as the Francklvn cottasre, in 
which the body of the President lay, is to the south-east. There 
they remained during the forenoon discussing the details of 
the events which had just transpired, in whieii they were all so 
deeply interested. A half hour later General Grant, with his 
son and a friend, drove u]) and spent an hour in gathering 
information of the last hours of President (Jarlield. 

Meanwhile, the undertaker and his assistants had arrived 
and were preparing the body of the President Inr (Mnbalming 
and burial. The body showed the loss of llesii to a degree 
painful to look upon. Oidy the face preserved any thing like 
the appearance of the living (iarlield. The beard, in a measiire, 
contributed to this, serving to (MMK'eal the hollowness of the 
wasted cheeks. The body was laid upon rubber cloths placed 



648 



LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



upon the floor to await the autopsy, which was to take place 
iu the afternoon. 

In the afternoon President Arthur arrived at Elberon. He 
had ah-eady taken the oath of office in New York City, and had 
then come immediately to Long- Branch to tender condolence to 




:;' W'/'m^/// *' 



CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 



the friends of the dead and to confer with the Cabinet. The 
question under consideration was the arrangement of a pro- 
gramme for the funeral of the President. After the confer- 
ence, the following plan for the funeral services was ordered by 
the Cabinet, and was given for the information of the public 
by Secretary Blaine : 



THE SOLEMN PAGEANT.-TIlE AUTOPSY. 649 

"Elberon, N. J., September 20, 1881. 

"The remains of the late President of the United States will be removed to 
Washington by special train on Wednesday, vSeptember 21, leaving Elberon at 10 
A. M., and reaching Washington at 4 r. m. Detachments from the United States 
Army and from the marines of the Navy will be in attendance on arrival at 
Washington to perform escort duty. The remains will lie in state in the rotunda 
of the Capitol on Thursday and Friday, and will be guarded by deputations from 
the Executive Departments and by officers of the Senate and House of liepre- 
sentatives. 

"Religious ceremonies will be observed in the rotunda at 3 o'clock on Friday 
afternoon. At 5 o'clock the remains will be transferred to the funeral ear and be 
removed to Cleveland, Ohio, via the Pennsylvania Railroad, arriving there Satur- 
day at 2 p. M. In Cleveland the remains will lie in state until Monday at 2 p. M., 
and be then interred in Lakeview Cemetery. No ceremonies are expected in the 
cities and towns along the route of the funeral train beyond the tolling of bells. 
Detailed arrangements for final sepulture are committed to the municipal au- 
thorities of Cleveland, under the direction of the Executive of the State of Ohio. 

" James G. Blaine, Secretary of State." 

Meanwhile, on the afternoon of the 20th, a post-mortem 
examination of the President's body was made with a view 
of clearing up the many uncertainties which existed concern- 
ing the nature of the wound and the secondary causes of 
death. The autopsy lasted for about three and a half hours, 
and was conducted by the attending and consulting surgeons, 
assisted by Dr. D. S. Lamb, Assistant Surgeon of the Medical 
Museum at AVashington, and Dr. A. H. Smith, of Xew Yoi'k. 
The revelations made by the examination were of an aston- 
ishing sort, chiefly so as it respected the diagnosis of the Pn-s- 
ident's injury, which was found to have been utterly at vari- 
ance with the facts. At 11 o'clock p. m. an official bnlk-tin— 
last of many— was prepared by the surgeons, setting forth the 
results of the autopsy, as follows : 

"Elberon, New Jkr«ev, Sefitember 2(», issi. 
By previous arrangement, a post-mortem examiniitioii of tlie luxly of 
President Garfield was made this afternoon in the presence and with the 
assistance of Drs. Hamilton, Agnew, Bliss, Barnes, Woodward, Kcyhnni, 
Andrew H. Smith, of Elberon, and Acting A.ssi.stant Surgeon D. S. Land), 
of the Army Medical Museum of Wa,<hing(on. Tli." i.iK-ration wiis \k't- 
formed by Dr. Lamb. It was found that the l-all, alter fracturing the 



650 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

right eleventh rib, had passed through the spinal column in front of the 
spinal cord, fracturing the body of the first lumbar vertebra, driven a 
number of small fragments of bone into the adjacent soft parts, and lodg- 
ing below the pancreas, about two inches and a half to the left of the spine, 
and behind the peritoneum, where it had become completely encysted. 

"The immediate cause of death was secondary hemorrhage from one of 
the mesenteric arteries adjoining the track of the ball, the blood ruj)tur- 
ing the peritoneum, and nearly a pint escaping into the abdominal cavity. 
This hemorrhage is believed to have been the cause of the severe pain in 
the lower part of the chest complained of just before death. An abscess 
cavity, six inches by four in dimensions, was found in the vicinity of the 
gall bladder, between the liver and the transverse colon, which were 
strongly adherent. It did not involve the substance of the liver, and no 
communication was found between it and the wound. 

"A long suppurating channel extended from the external wound, be- 
tween the loin muscles and the right kidney, almost to the right groin. 
This channel, now known to be due to the burrowing of pus from the 
wound, was supposed during life to have been the track of the ball. 

"On an examination of the organs of the chest, evidences of severe 
bronchitis were found on both sides, with broncho-pneumonia of the lower 
portion of the right lung, and, though to a mucli less extent, of the left. 
The lungs contained no abscesses, and the heart no clots. The liver was 
enlarged and fatty, but not from abscesses. Nor were any found in any 
other organ except the left kidney, which contained near its surface a small 
abscess about one-third of an inch in diameter, 

"In reviewing th.^ history of the case in connection with the autopsy, 
it is quite evident that the different suppurating surfaces, and especially 
the fractured, spongy tissue of the vertebra, furnish a sufficient explana- 
tion of the septic condition which existed." 

During the first day after the President's death several inci- 
dents occurred worthy of note. Among others, came two dis- 
patches from Cleveland, whose people were profoundly touched 
by the death of their friend. The first was from a committee 

of the city council, and said : 

Cleveland, Ohio, September 20, 188L 
Jir.s. J. A. Garfield, Elberon, New Jersey: 

In behalf of the trusteCvS, we tender you ground in Lakeview Cemetery for the 
burial of our lamented President, such as you or your friends may select. 

(Signed by Executive Committee.) 



THE SOLEMN PAGEANT.— THE AGED MOTHER. 051 

This was supplemented l)y the following dispatch sent Ijy 
the Mayor of Cleveland: 

3Irs. James A. Garfield, Long Branch, y. J..- 

The people of this city, who have borne such love and Iionor to your hu.'^band, 
most earnestly and sincerely desire that liis grave may be made here among us. 
Allow me, dear madam, to add to this publicly expressed desire of our citizens my 
own personal and othcial concurrence. R. R. Hekrick, Mayor. 

These cordial offers, concnrring with Mrs. Gartiold's own 
wishes and the express desire of her dead hushand, dotcrniincd 
the choice of the spot where his body was to be laid to rest. 

Another incident was the breaking of the news to the aged 

mother at home. Early in the morning a message came to 

Mrs. Larabee, sister of the President, who lives at Solon, Ohio, 

and with whom the poor old mother was for the time residing. 

The dispatch said: 

To Mrs. Eliza Garfield: 
James died this evening at 10:35. He calmly breathed his life away. 

L). G. .SWAIM. 

For awhile the dreadful intelligence was held back from the 
faithful heart that had sheltered James A. Garfield in his 
childhood. At length, after breakfast, she sought, as usual, 
the daily telegram from her son. Finding the dispatch, she 
was about to read, when her granddaughter took the message 
from her trembling hands. 

« Grandma," she said, " would you be surprised to hear bad 

news this morning? " 

"Whv, I do n't" know," said the old lady. 

" Weil, I should not," said Mrs. Larabee, " I have been fear- 
ing and expecting it all the morning." 

"Grandma," said Pollen Larabee, "there is .sad n.-ws." 

"Is he dead?" asked the old lady, tremulously. 

"He is." 

The quick tears started in the sensitive eyes. Tliere was no 
violent paroxysm of grief. No expression of frenzy told of the 

anguish within. 

"Is it true?" she asked, with ((uivering lips. "Then the 
Lord help me, for if lu- is dead wliat shall I d(.?" 



652 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

It was the bitterest of all the outcries of sorrowing human 
nature — the anguish of a mother's breaking heart. The morn- 
ing of the 2l8t of September broke calmly from the sea. 
Every thing was in readiness for the departure. For a brief 
period in the morning the people of Elberon were permitted 
to view the face of the dead. The coffin rested upon supports 
draped in black. There were few decorations. Upon the top 
were two black palm leaves. Some white flowers and a hang- 
ing basket of ferns with some branches of eye as leaves, em- 
blematic of heroism, completed the decorations. ♦ 

At half-past nine a brief funeral service was pronounced over 
the dead by Rev. Charles J. Young, of Long Branch, and then 
preparations were made for the immediate departure of the sad 
cortege on its sorrowful journey. 

The train which was to bear away the President's remains 
was backed up to the cottage on the track that had been so 
magically laid over the lawns on the night before he was 
brought to Long Branch. It consisted of an engine and 
four cars, which were all heavily and tastefully draped in 
mourning. Almost all the woodwork on the sides of the cars 
was covered with crape, only the number of the car being left 
exposed. The front car was for the baggage. The next was 
specially arranged for the coffin. In the center of this was 
a large catafalque for the casket to rest upon. It was cov- 
ered with crape arranged in graceful folds. It rested upon 
a raised platform also draped in mourning and surrounded at 
the bottom by flags. The sides and top of the car were en- 
tirely covered with black cloth. Cane chairs were provided for 
the military guard of honor which occupied the car with the 
coffin. The third car was a combination one for members of 
the Cabinet. It was also draped in mourning inside and out. 
The last car was the private car of President Roberts, of the 
Pennsylvania Railroad. It was reserved for Mrs. Garfield and 
family, and was the same car in which she came to Long 
Branch on the 6th of September. This car was also tastefully 
draped in black. 



THE SOLEMN PAGEANT.— DEPAKTUKE FROM ELBERON. G53 



Promptly at 10 o'clock the train moved slowly uwuy toward 
the Elbcroii station. At this time there were two or three 
thousand persons lining the track, and the roadway was crowded 
with carriages for half a mile. Men stood with uncovered 
heads watching the train as it disappeared from view. 

It was expected that 
President Arthur 
would arrive at At- 
torney-General Mac- 
Yeae^h's house in the 
morning, and with the 
Cabinet visit the 
house where Presi- 
dent Garfield lay dead. 
The mixed crowed of 
city and country peo- 
ple who had gathered 
from many miles 
thouo-ht they w^ould 
witness the closing 
scenes of the dead 
President's career and 
atthesame time catch 
a glimpse of his suc- 
cessor. The arrange- 
ments were subsequently changed, huwever. President Arthur 
decided to take a special train from Jersey City and meet the 
funeral procession at the Elberon station. 

Without further delay the funeral train moved slowly along 
the track which had been laid across the tields specially to con- 
vey President Garfield to his new home by the sea. Nearly 
every hat was removed from the heads of the observers when 
the train approached. It moved along the left-hand track un- 
til the last car was parallel with the roar oar of the speoial 
train from Jersey City, whicli stood on the right-hand track. 
President Arthur and the rest of the party then stopped into 




^. 



MISS MOLLIE GARFIELD. 



654 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

the car where the Cabinet were seated. After greeting the per- 
sons in the car, the President seated himself behind Secretary 
Blaine, and the two engaged in conversation. General Grant 
took a seat immediately behind President Arthur, when he was 
soon joined by Chief-Justice Waite. The engine which drew 
the train from the Francklyn cottage drew the train only to the 
main road. Engineer Paige and Fireman Gwinnell, who had 
charge of the engine when President Garfield was removed 
from Washington, were waiting with the same engine on a side 
track. Deep folds of mourning hung from the engineer's box 
and pieces of crape covered the brass and other portions of the 
engine. Paige, who has always felt great pride in the success- 
ful removal from Washington, backed his engine on the main 
track and coupled it to the car which contained the coffin. At 
twelve minutes past 10 o'clock, the conductor told Paige that 
all was ready. A few pufis was the only noise made, and the 
funeral train moved quietly away. 

At the various points en route there were tokens of the deep- 
est popular sorrow. At Ocean Grove, the railroad for half a 
mile on both sides was lined with people. On the platform of 
the depot were from 4,000 to 5,000 men and women. As the 
train passed the men stood with uncovered heads, absolutely 
silent. The bells tolled, and then the crowd dispersed. Flags 
were at half-mast, and the buildings were draped in black. 

There was a brief stop at Monmouth Junction, and at Prince- 
ton, where the students from the College of 'New Jersey were 
gathered to catch a glimpse of the passing train. They stood 
five hundred strong along the track, which had been strewed 
with flowers by the people. At Trenton, which was passed just 
before noon, an immense crowd of people had assembled. Every 
man took ofi" his hat, and the women bowed their heads as the 
train went by. Many persons were aft'ected to tears. 

At 12 : 50 p. M. the cortege reached Grand Ferry Junction, op- 
posite Philadelphia, where a great crowd, standing in silence, caught 
a glimpse of the casket containing the remains of the dead Presi- 
dent. At Wilmington, fully ten thousand people were assembled. 



THE SOLEMN PAGEANT.— ARRIVAL AT WASIIINCiTOX. 055 



The bells of the city hall, courl-hou.sc, and tiri-engiiK- limises wtTc 
tolled while the train was passing througii tlie city. At Baltimore 
there was no stop. Several thousand persons were gathered about 
the depot, who uncovered as the train passed, preserving the most 
respectful silence. Only three or four persons on the train were 
visible and recognized, the curtains of the cars being closed. 

At 4:35 p. M, the cortege reached Washington City. As the 
train came into the depot, there ^_^ 

was a hush among the throng, 
and then every head was uncov- 
ered. The scene that followed 
was impressive in the extreme. 
Mrs. Garfield, heavily veiled 
and dressed in deep mourning, 
alighted, leaning on the arm of 
Secretary Blaine on the one side, 
and supported by her son Harry 
on the other. Members of the 
Cabinet followed, and among 
them tow-ered the form of Presi- 
dent Arthur, on whose face was 
written the various emotions 
which must have struggled 
within him as he was welcomed 

by the sad and silent thousands of the people of Washington. 
This party was followed by the pall-bearers, consisting of trained 
artillery sergeants. As the cortege reached Sixth Street, wliere 
the military was massed, the Marine liand beg;iii >lo\vly to play 
"Nearer, my God, to Thee." As the notes of this beautiful mel- 
ody filled the air all heads were bowed in reverence, anil even the 
rabble in the streets was awed into silence. 

The scene at the east front of tlie Capitol was :ui imposing one. 
The wide plateau was filled witli the various military orgaui/ati<.ns 
in bright uniforms, conspicuous among which were the marin.'s. The 
General and staff officers of the Army and tin- (^ilieers of the Navy 
formed in two hues leading to the foot of the l.mad marble step.s 




JAMES K. OAKFIEI.D. 



656 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

on the east front, standing on which President Garfield had de- 
livered his inaugural address. Directly in front was the hearse, 
drawn by six magnificent gray horses. At the foot of the steps 
stood the officers of the Senate and of the House, and the Re- 
ception Committee. "When the band had played a dirge, the pall- 
bearers advanced, followed by the President, Cabinet, Justices 
of the Supreme Court, Senators and Representatives, and filed 
slowly and sadly up a pathway which had been kept open in 
the middle of the broad flight of stairs, the sides being densely 
packed with people who had crowded in to see this part of the 
pageant. 

On reaching the center of the vast rotunda, the casket was placed 
on the catafalque which had been prepared for it, and then the Presi- 
dent and the Cabinet, together with General Grant, the Senators 
and the Representatives, stood for a moment in silence. Then 
a panel covering the face of the dead President was removed, and 
they looked for the last*time upon the wasted features of him who 
so lately was chief of the Nation, and then solemnly moved away. 
The sight of the face of the dead President was indeed terrible, and 
upon most who saw it an impression was left which time can never 
eiFace. It was pinched and haggard to the last extreme ; the skin 
yellow and glistening; the eyes sunken, and the lips tightly drawn. 
The nose looked unnaturally long, sharp, and hooked; and alto- 
gether there was but the slighest resemblance to the heroic form 
and face of him who had been James A. Garfield. 

The arrangement made was that for two days and nights the 
body of the illustrious dead should lie in state in the rotunda of 
the Capitol. This plan was carried out. A guard of honor stood 
right and left, and very soon, in orderly procession past the mor- 
tal remains of their dead friend, the people began to pour in a 
continuous stream. It was now night-fall, and the shadows came 
down around the magnificent structure which for eighteen years 
had been the scene of the toils and triumphs of Garfield, now, 
alas, about to witness the last ovation in his honor. 

On the morning of the 22d of September Washington City 
became, at sunrise, the scene of such a pageant as had never but 



THE SOLEMN PAGEANT.— MOUKNING THOUSANDS. Go7 

once been beheld within these sj^aeious avenues. By six o'cldck 
the crowds had assembled, and were filing through the ea.st door 
of the Capitol. As the day advanced the throng increased ; and, 
as it became absolutely necessary that each person should have liis 
turn in the solemn procession, the latest comers were obliged to 
take up their stations at the end of a long line to the rear, liv 
ten o'clock this M'as found to reach to the crossing of Second 
Street and the avenue south-west — considerably more than a (juar- 
ter of a mile away. All along this line policemen walked* back 
and forth, to prevent stragglers from the outside from coming into 
the line out of turn. The people forming this procession were of 
the highest and lowest; among the number, thousands of M'onien 
and children. 

The time required to pa.ss from this extreme limit of the line 
to the catafalque was, at the most crowded period, three hours and 
a half, and this under a broiling sun and upon a broad a.sphaltura 
pavement, which scorched the feet that pressed it. 

During the day there were no incidents in the rotunda worthy 
of mention. Beyond the ceaseless tramp of the people, who 
poured through in a continuous stream, there was no sound — the 
de.sire for conversation being swallowed up in the awe wliich the 
presence of the dead President inspired. Some of the pcojjle 
passed the coffin without lifting their eyes from the floor, unwil- 
ling to trust themselves to gaze upon the awful sight. Others, 
more curious, looked as long as they could, and then reluctantly 
moved away. There were a great many colored people in tlie 
throng, of both sexes and of all ages and conditions. Common 
laborers in tattered clothing crowded upon sumptuously-dressed 
ladies and gentlemen, all inspired by a common motive. At <mo 
time during the day it was ascertained by actual count tliat -ixty 
persons passed the coffin in one minute, or at th(> rate of ;i,fHK> an 
hour, or more than 40,000 during the day. This is probably not 
above the actual number which pas.^ed through the rotunda. 

At the farther end of the catafaUpie were some beautiful floral 
decorations. There was a broken column of white roses of the 
Marshal Neil varietv, about three feet high, surmounted by a white 
42 



5^/ 

^ 658 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

dove with wings outspread, as if in the act of alighting. Next 
came a lovely design representing "The Gates Ajar." These 
columns were also of white roses, and the bars of the gate were 
of variegated white and green. The gate-posts were surmounted 
by globes of immortelles. Next to this was a crown of white rose- 
buds, the points being tipped with fern. Beyond this was a bank 
of white flowers from which sprang a column on which was perched 
a white dove. Upon the bank of white was worked in green the 
words : " Our Martyr President." At each end of the floral dis- 
play was a wreath of ivy leaves lying on the floor. In the after- 
noon there w^as sent from the British Legation a massive wreath, 
one of the most beautiful ever seen in Washington. It came 
in obedience to orders telegraphed from the Queen, and the ac- 
companying card bore the following touching and significant in- 
scription : 

" Queen Victoria, to the memory of the late President Gar- 
field. An expression of her sorrow and sympathy with Mrs. 
Garfield and the American Nation." 

"September 22, 1881." 

The interior of the rotunda was hung in black, though not so 
heavily as to produce a marked effect. In all other respects this 
portion of the Capitol was of the usual appearance. 

After passing the catafalque, most of the visitors left the build- 
ing by the west staircase and departed; but many mounted to 
the dome and viewed the crowds assembled at the east front from 
that point of vantage. All day the streets were thronged with 
people. The street-cars, which had been appropriately draped, 
were filled to overflowing both to and from the Capitol, and all 
the conveyances in the city were brought into requisition. The 
trains brought many visitors from all parts of the nation to the 
city ; and many country people from Maryland and Virginia took 
advantage of the pageant to visit the city. 

During the afternoon there were some indications that the de- 
composition of the body had set in ; and, it being understood that 
in such event it was the wish of Mrs. Garfield that the features 



-^^s 



J 



THE SOLEMN PAGEANT.— THE WIFE'S FAREWELL. 



0o9 



of her husband should be shut out from the public gaze, the lid 
of the casket was closed, by order of Secretary Blaine, at about 
6 : 30 in the evening. 

Thus, with the evening twilight, the face of James A. Garfield, 




JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



which, for so many year.'*, had shone with a great radiance among 
the people, was shut forever from the sight of men. 

The morning of the 23d of September witncs.scd a renew:.! ..f 
the scene of the day before. At half-pa.st eleven all tl.(. .loois 
and avenues of approach were closed in order that Mrs. (Jarheld 
might go in and remain for a few minutes alone with her .lead. 
What passed behind those silent curtains belongs not to .-unous 



660 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

liistory, peering ever with sleepless eyes into the secrets of life 
and death, but only to the stricken woman who went in alone to 
her honored dead. 

After this affecting episode the procession w^as renewed for a 
season, and then preparations were made for the observance of the 
formal ceremonies of the day. At two o'clock the services began. 
Appropriate passages of Scripture w'ere read by Rev. Dr. Rankin, 
and this was followed w'ith a touching prayer by Elder Isaac 
Errett, of Cincinnati. As the closing words of the invocation 
died away, the Rev. F. D. Powers, of the Vermont Avenue Chris- 
tian Church, of which President Garfield was a member, delivered 
a feeling address. He spoke in a clear voice, and was distinctly 
heard in every portion of the hall : 

"The cloud so long pending over the Nation has at last burst upon our 
heads. We sit half-crushed amid the ruin it has brought. A million 
million prayers and hopes and tears, as far as human wisdom sees, were 
vain. Our loved one has passed from us. But there is relief. We 
look away from the body. We forget, for a time, the things that are 
seen. We remember with joy his faith in the Son of God, whose gospel 
he sometimes himself preached, and which he always truly loved. And 
we see light and blue dvy through the cloud structure, and beauty in- 
stead of ruin, — glory, honor, immortality, spiritual and eternal life in the 
place of decay and death. The chief glory of this man, as we think of 
him now, was his discipleshiji in the school of Christ. His attainments 
as scholar and statesman will be the theme of our orators and historians ; 
and they must be worthy men to speak his praise worthily. But it is as 
a Christian that we love to think of him now. It was this which made 
his life to man an invaluable boon, his death to us an unspeakable loss, 
his eternity to himself an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that 
fadeth not away. 

" He was no sectarian. His religion was as broad as the religion of 
Christ. He was a simple Christian, bound by no sectarian ties, and wholly 
in fellowship with all pure spirits. He was a Christologist rather than 
a theologist. He had great reverence for the family relations. His 
example as son, husband, and father, is a glory to this Nation. He had 
a most kindly nature. His power over human hearts was deep and 
strong. He won men to him. He had no enemies. The hand that 



o . r 



THE SOLEMN PAGEANT.— BORNE AWAY. 061 K 

struck him was not the hand of his enemy, but the enemy of the posi- 
tion, the enemy of the country, the enemy of God. He sought to do 
right, manward and Godward. 

" He was a grander man than we know. He wrought, even in his 
pain, a l)etter work for the Nation than we can now estimate. He fell 
at the height of his achievements, not from any fault of his; but we may, 
in some sense, reverently apply to hifn the words spoken of his dear Lord : 
'He was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our ini(juities; 
the chastisement of our peace was upon him.' As the nations remember 
the Macedonian as Alexander the Great and the Grecian as Aristides the 
Just, may not the son of America be known as Garfield the Good? 

" Our President rests; he had joy in the glory of work, and he loved 
to talk of the leisure that did not' come to him. Now^ he has it. This 
is the day, precious because of the service it rendered. He is a freed 
spirit; absent from the body, he is present with the Lord. On the 
heights whence came his help he finds repose. What rest has been his 
for these four days! The brave spirit which cried in his body: 'I am 
tired,' is where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at 
rest. The patient soul which groaned under the burden of the suffering 
flesh: 'O, this pain,' is now in a world without pain. Spring comes, the 
flowers bloom, the buds put forth, the birds sing. Autumn rolls round, 
the birds have long since hushed their voices, the flowers have faded and 
fallen away; the forest foliage assumes a .sickly, dying hue:— so earthly 
things pass away, and what is true remains with God. 

"The pageant moves; the splendor of arms and the banners glitter in 
the sunlight ; the music of instruments and of oratory swells ui)on the 
air; the cheers and prai.ses of men resound. But the spring and sum- 
mer pass by, and the autumn sees a Nation of sad eyes and heavy hearts, 
and what is true remains of God. ' The Eternal God is our refuge, and 
underneath are the everlasting arms.'" 

At the close of the address anotlicr i)raycr was oifcnd by IJrv. 
J. G. Butler. As the last words of the service di.<l away a 
beautiful rainbow appeared upon a bank of clouds in the east, and 
while this arch of promise rested calmly against the background 
of black, the casket was taken up by tlx- pall-bearers and i...rne 
away to the hearse. The funeral train was already in waiting at 
the dep6t of the Peimsylvania Railway, and every thing was in 



662 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

readiness for the departure. The streets were lined with people, 
and no visible sign of grief was lacking to testify the sorrow of 
the people for the dead, and their sympathy for the living. The 
Marine Band played a solemn dirge, and at sixteen minutes past 
five o'clock the train started for Cleveland. 

The journey from Washington to the west was made without re- 
markable incident. Crowds, large beyond all precedent, awaited 
the passage of the train at every point. In Baltimore, which was 
reached before dark, the whole city had apparently turned out to 
see the draped coaches go by. As the train reached the outer 
edge of the waiting throng, Mrs. Garfield was seated in her car 
looking out of the window. Knowing her disposition to shrink 
fi'om publicity, one of her companions arose to put down the shade. 
But she asked that it be allowed to remain open, saying that she 
was glad to see the crowds which had assembled to do honor to 
her husband. 

All on the funeral train retired early and remained in bed until 
they arrived in Pittsburgh. In the night, however, those awake 
saw everywhere the crowds which were in waiting. At Altoona 
a weird scene impressed itself upon the minds of those who saw it. 
The place was passed in the middle hours of the night. The 
darkness was made visible by large numbers of pine torches held 
by workingmen stationed at intervals along the streets. At East 
Liverpool the members of a Post of the Grand Army of the 
Republic awaited the passage of the train. At another place the 
track was strewn with flowers. At Pittsburgh, which was reached 
a little after six o'clock, the whole town was astir, and the train 
made its way between dense and silent masses of humanity. In 
the morning all on the train called on Mrs. Garfield to pay their 
respects. She had borne the fatigue of the night and the long 
journey quite well. 

At nearly every station along the route, bells were heard tolling 
as the train passed, and at one or two places dirges were played by 
brass bands. It was noticed by the passengers that the women in 
the crowds through which the train passed were weeping. Very 
good time was made as far as Pittsburgh, but at that point a dis- 



J» 



THE SOLEMN PAGEANT.— AT CLEVELAND. GG3 

patch was received from Cleveland asking the railroad authorities to 
delay the train an hour or two, as the citizens liad not yet com- 
pleted their arrangements for the reception. On this account the 
sjieed was decreased, and the train did not arrive at Cleveland until 
1 : 15 in the afternoon. 

The ceremony of reception at the latter city was simple, and 
every thing was decorously done. liong before the train was ex- 
pected the people of the town, in carriages, street cars, and on foot, 
made their way toward the .station. ISIilitary and civic organiza- 
tions were already on the spot, and although there was some inev- 
itable bustle, every thing was in place when the train arrived. As 
the draped engine drew near, every head was uncovered. When 
the train stopped, the citizens' committee of reception, which had 
met the cortege as it passed into Ohio, stepped off the train, and 
formed into double line. The Judges of the Supreme Court, Sen- 
ators and Officers of the Army and Xavy followed, and took their 
positions in the line without delay. 

The coffin containing the body was then lifted from the car by 
the regular soldiers who accompanied it on the train, and carried 
to the hearse. The personal friends and attendants of Mrs. Gar- 
field, including the members of the Cabinet and their wives, tlicn 
passed between the two lines. Last came Mrs. Garfield leaning 
upon the arm of her son Harry, and escorted upon the other side 
by Secretary Blaine. Mrs. Garfield and her family were taken to 
a carriage and driven directly to the house of James Mason, which 
became her temporary home. 

It had been determined that the remains of the President 
should be conveyed to Monument Square, and there be laid in state 
until the day of interment. To this end a jiavilion, perhaps i1k> 
finest structure of the kind ever erected, had been built in tlie 
middle of the square at the intersection of Superior and Ontario 
Streets; and here the body of the IVsident was to lie until liie 
26th of September, Avhich ha<l be<-n lixe.l upon as the day of sepul- 
ture. The pavilion, tasteful in design and rich in dccration. 
was a fit exponent of the gorgeous solemnity of sorn.w. 'Hi.- 
structure was forty feet square at the ba.se. The four front.s were 



664 



LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



spanned by arches thirty-six feet high and twenty-four feet in 
M'idth. The catafalque upon which the casket rested was five and 

a half feet high, covered 
Avith black velvet, and 
handsomely festooned. 
Long carpeted walks as- 
cended to the floor from 
the east and west fronts. 
The pavilion Avas seventy- 
two feet high to the apex 
of the roof. From the 
center of the roof rose a 
beautiful gilt sphere, sup- 
porting the figure of an an- 
gel twenty-four feet high. 
The columns at each side 
of the arches were orna- 
mented by shields of a 
beautiful design and ex- 
quisitely draped. Over 
these were suspended un- 
furled flags. The centers 
of the arches bore similar 
shields. On the angles of 
the roof were groups of 
furled flags. Projecting 
from the angles of the 
base were elevated plat- 
forms, occupied by fully- 
uniformed guards. Each 
platform was provided 
with a suitable piece of 
field artillery. The structure was appropriately decorated, from 
base to dome, with black and white crape. Flowers and flags were 
displayed in various portions of the pavilion. 

The interior was beautified with rare plants, choice flowers, and 




JAMES AND HARRY GARFIELD. 



Z2 / 



THE SOLEMN PAGEANT.— IN STATE. G65 ^^ 

exquisite floral designs, two carloads of which had Itccn hmnght 
from Cincinnati. The whole was a magnificent piece of work, 
both in design and execution. 

At the east and west entrances to Monumental Park were heavv 
Gothic arches with drive-ways and openings for foot passengers 
on each side. They were situated at a sufficient distance from the 
catafalque to appear to be a part of it. The eastern one was cov- 
ered wdth crape, with white and black trimmings running down 
each column, and the top bordered with blue and white stars. 
Added to these were several golden shields. The western gate- 
way was similar in construction, and seemed foirly to close uj) Su- 
perior Street to the view. On the extreme outside pillars were 
the names of the States in black letters. 

Into this solemn and beautiful structure, at the head of an 
almost endless procession, and drawn in a beautiful hearse, sur- 
rounded with guards of honor, was borne the body of the dead 
Garfield. Here the casket was laid upon the catafalque prepared 
for its reception. The day was already worn to evening, l)Ut it 
was decided not to admit the throng of people until the iikutow. 

Meanwhile, a last resting-place had been chosen where the great 
Oh loan should be at peace. The place selected for the tomb was 
at the top of the most commanding knoll in Lakeview Gemetery. 
Below it lie two ornamental lakes of considerable size, and on all 
sides, except the south, stand the marble and granite monuments of 
the dead. Northward, in the distance stretching along the horizon 
on either hand for twenty miles, can l)e seen the blue waters of Erie. 
The selection of this site was made by the trustees of the ceme- 
tery, subject to Mrs. Garfield's approval, which was promi)tIy and 
thankfully given. 

So one more day closed in the shadows of the autumnal twilight, 

and Ohio sat still beside her dead. 

It w^as the morning of Sunday. A strange vision rose with 
the sun. Clevehuul was thronge<l with illimitable crowds ot 
people. The murmur of the multitudes, though subdued, grew, 
and became continuous. At nine o'clock the guards ai)Out the 
public square made an opening in their liue upon the west sido 



11^ 

'' 66& LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

through which the multitude began to pour. They were kept 
in line four and five and six abreast, marching in families, 
squares, groups, and indiscriminately, but still keeping their 
ranks, and sweeping steadily and rapidly onward at the east 
and west sides of the catafalque. Inclined planes had been 
erected and carpeted so that the throngs marched easily up on 
the one side and down on the other. The pace was too rapid to 
make the visit a satisfactory one — for the exquisite floral adorn- 
ments were tempting enough to furnish pleasure for a visit of 
an hour — but all had an opportunity to get one glance at the cof- 
fin which contained the remains of him they had met to honor. 

As the morning wore on the procession grew in length and 
volume. In an hour after the movement began the line 
stretched away to the distance of a square; then two squares; 
then a half mile. The people passed at the rate of one hun- 
dred and forty to the minute. Still there was no abatement of 
the tide which poured past the catafalque. In the afternoon 
the immense volume of humanity was swollen to a river whose 
surging, silent waters seemed filled from fountains exhaustless 
as the ocean. Later in the day came a storm of thunder and 
wind; only a few were driven from the column; others filled 
the vacant places, and still the tide surged on. As the crowds, 
never ending, swept by the catafalque, every hat was raised, 
and with uncovered heads, often with tears in their eyes and 
half-suppressed sobs, the people moved on. Late into the 
night they continued to come in unbroken ranks, the old and 
young, the pure and vile, the lame upon their crutches, the in- 
firm leaning upon their companions, and babes in the arms of 
their mothers. It was the day of the people. It was estimated 
that during the day 150,000 human beings passed silently by 
the casket whose mute tenant recked no longer of earthly 
pomp and pageant. 

On the evening of the 25th, Monument Square was S3t aglow 
with electric lights, which, from high places here and there, 
threw over the strange scene their brilliant, almost unearthly, 
splendor. On the outskirts of the guard-lines great masses of 



THE SOLEMN PAGEANT.-FINAL CEREMONIES. 6G7 

meix and women still lingered, gazing silently towards the cata- 
falque surrounded by sentinels. At midnigiit only a few guards 
and workmen remained inside the line, though many persons 
were yet on the streets outside. The scene was singularly im- 
pressive at this hour. The almost perfect silence, the bright 
gkre of the lights, the ceaseless movements of the sentinels, 
the sighing of the wind through the trees, combined to create 
a feeling of awe in the breasts of all beholders. The massive 
structure, reared so quickly in the large square, seemed tlie 
work of magic. The fact that the noble, patriotic Garfield lay 
calmly sleeping the final sleep amid the scenes of his early 
manhood, carried its sad lesson to every heart, and then camo, 
quick as thought, the reflection that the morrow would hear 
the mournful monologue of ^^ Earth to earth, ashes to ashes." 

It was the morning of the last day on earth. Well-nigh all the 
formalities, many and sometimes tedious, peculiar to the l)urial of 
one falling in high office and high honor, had been observed, and 
to these had been added a thousand tokens, extemporized out of 
the nation's grief, befitting the funeral of a beloved Chief Magis- 
trate. It only remained for the people once more to lift the casket 
containing the body of their friend, and to bear it to the home 
prepared for all living. 

At 9 o'clock on the morning of the 2r)th the line of poojile load- 
ing toward the pavilion found itself suddenly confronted by a line 
of muskets. The order had been given to clear the gates. Men 
and women who had been in line for hours were unabk- U> pro- 
ceed further, and many with ill-disguised resentment turned aside 
to seek a favorable point to view the exerci.scs. The tro<ti)s now 
formed along each side of the Park, in a hollow square six hun- 
dred feet in length. The beautiful canopy stood in the <riii. r. at 
the intersection of the two streets, and under it lay ihe easket. 
An opening was made at the western end leading up to Superior 
Street, and this was maintained with sonu- dillieulty by a regiment 
of State troops. From this point to the eano])y itself wa.s statioued 
a line of marines from the AVashington Navy-yard— a broad 
avenue, a half a mile in length, being thus kept open, so that the 



668 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

carriages of those entitled to admission could enter without diffi- 
culty. It Avas a beautiful sight from the canopy to look down 
this long double file of soldiers and knights, and the photogra- 
l^hers were busy in their efforts to preserve the picture. 

At 9 : 30 A. M. the funeral car, which was to convey the body 
to the cemetery, was drawn into the square by twelve black horses 
with black draperies fringed with silver lace. The horses were 
arranged four abreast. At the head of each of the six outside 
horses was a negro groom in long black coat, high silk hat, and 
white gloves. 

The car was elaborately decorated and surmounted by large 
black-and-white plumes, with folded battle flags at each corner. 
Next came a procession of carriages bearing the family and inti- 
mate friends of the dead President. Draped chairs were arranged 
about the catafalque, and here were seated not only those who were 
bound to the Garfield family by the ties of nature and intimate 
affection, but also a great number of the most distinguished states- 
men, jurists, and soldiers of the nation. The sound of a minute- 
gun broke the silence, and the services were opened with the 
reading of the Scriptures by Bishop Bedell and an invocation by 
the Rev. Ross C. Houghton. At eleven o'clock the Rev. Isaac 
Errett, of Cincinnati, pronounced the funeral oration, which was 
a chaste and touching tribute to the memory of the great dead. 

At the close of this eloquent address, Rev. Jabez Hall an- 
nounced General Garfield's favorite hymn, " Ho ! reapers of life's 
harvest," which was sung by the choirs gathered about the cata- 
falque. Then followed a closing prayer and benediction by Rev. 
Charles S. Pomeroy, and then the removal of the casket to the 
cemetery. It was now noonday, and the heat was very oppressive. 
The funeral car had been drawn up to within fifty feet of the foot 
of the incline lead-ing from the canopy, and a roll of carpeting 
covered the ground. The trained soldiers from Washington stood 
in line at the foot of the canopy, ready to carry out the body 
whenever the word was given. 

The members of the Cleveland Greys, with their high bearskin 
hats, stood like statues at the four corners of the canopy. The 



^. 



THE SOLEMN PAGEANT.— THE PROCESSION. GG9 "^ 

long Hue of .soldiers stood, all attention, and tlie sipcnal that all 
was ready was given. At the word of eomniand the .soldiers, with 
their white helmets, stepped briskly up the iueliue, and turning 
''about face," readily lifted the casket to their .shoulders. Then, 
grasping each other by the shoulder, thus giving the casket all the 
support necessary, they marched with slow and steady stej) down 
toward the funeral car. Not a word was spoken. The men were 
too well drilled to need more than a nod of command, and they 
carried the body to the car and laid it on the bier in silence. 
Then they marched back, and, turning again, took up their posi- 
tion on either side of the coffin. 

A line was now formed outside of the square in order that the 
cortege might pass on its w^y to the mansion of the dead. The 
wife and mother and children of the President, accompanied by a 
great throng of intimate friends, arose to follow, and then the pro- 
cession began to move towards the cemetery, three miles away. 

The funeral car proceeded beyond the city hall, and stopped 
until the first carriage started out. As the carriages containing 
the friends of the flimily and eminent men were filled, the car 
continued its journey until the massive archway at Erie Street was 
reached. Another jam of people were waiting here. And as the 
procession slowly passed onward these joined the ranks. Turn- 
ing into the broad and beautiful Euclid Avenue, the mournful 
cortege wended its way toward the cemetery in the di.^^tance. The 
great difficulty with the moving pageant was its inimen.se volume. 
If all apidicants had been given a place it would have been twice 
the length of the entire route. The weather had been very warm 
during the morning, but about two o'clock a refreshing breeze 
cooled the atmo.sphere, and an hour later a heavy .storm of rain 
came down, rendering the march very disagreeable. Tli.n there 
was a stampede of the crowd fi)r shelter. The rain la.-^ted for about 
fifteen minute.^, and the bright uniforms of the .soldiers, and t In- 
feathery plumes of the Knights Templar, and other .societies, wero 
drenched and soiled. 

The procession continued its weary march without fnrthor event 
until the head of the column arrived at a i)oint about half a mile 



670 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

distant from the cemetery gate, when a halt was ordered. The 
societies then opened their ranks, and the funeral car, with escort 
and following carriages, passed through and onward to the vault 
which was to receive the President's remains. 

Here was the last scene of the solemn pageant, begun afar by 
the sea. The surroundings were grand and beautiful. Art had 
led Nature by the hand to this last shrine of the earthly pilgrimage. 
On every side lay the soft carpet of green. Over the space from 
the roadway to the entrance of the vault was a magnificent canopy, 
draped in the gorgeous trappings of woe. The air was burdened 
with the perfume of a thousand flowers. Leading into the vault 
was a dark carpet strewn with roses so thick that the carpet could 
not be at first recognized. On entering there was presented a 
somber darkness and sacred shade, equal to the catacombs of 
antiquity. There was a vault Avithin a vault. The interior was 
hung all about with dense mourning, having large flags as a back- 
ground. The choicest floral designs occupied every space on the 
walls, and the floor was deeply bedded with choice flowers. A 
large " cross and crown," from the Bavarian Legation, was in the 
center of the south side, and an elegant lyre, sent from AVashing- 
ton, was on the opposite side, while elegant designs from the 
people of the city were placed here and there. It was impossible 
to use all the floral oflerings sent to this place of rest, and many 
of them were kept in the boxes at the vault. The walls of the 
chamber were draped with smilax, and the doors with crape fes- 
tooned with trailing vines. On the first step of the entrance, at 
the right door, was a group of three elegant crosses of roses, 
jasmine, carnations, with the words, 

"dead, but not forgotten," 

the gift of the Bolivian Legation at Washington. The steps were 
covered with evergreens and strewn with a thick carpet of rose- 
buds, tuberoses, and carnation. A large "wreath, presented by the 
ladies of Dubuque, Iowa, was fastened near the ceiling, so that it 
could be seen at some distance. Looking through the open door 



-> 



THE SOLEMN PAGEANT.— EARTH TO EARTH. G71 K 

at the head of the bier was a lyre of roses, carnations, and tube- 
roses, bearing in immortelles the words : 

"in memory of JAMES A. GARFIELD." 

At the foot of the bier stood a heavy cross, the gift of Mrs. Gar- 
field herself to the Decorative Committee, for that place. The sides 
of the vault were draped with rich black. The canopy of the in- 
terior consisted of many flags so arranged as to give the impression 
of an interior roof. The inner west wall was beautifully draped 
with flags festooned with black, and ornamented with a wreath of 
white roses. The floor was covered with a carpet of arbor vita) and 
roses. The heavy doors were removed, and the gates were draped 
with bunting and festoons of smilax. In the center of the vault 
stood the bier, a beveled parallelogram, with a base of black velvet 
and draped entire with heavy black broadcloth, rich fringe, and a 
liberal trimming of evergreen. 

The procession halted. It was the last stage in the journey. 
The chief mourners, except Harry and James Garfield, did not 
alight. The clouds still wept at intervals. The band removed to 
a distance, sounding the notes of a solemn requiem. The Forest 
City Guards formed on the right and the Knights on the left. 
The funeral car was then drawn up over the heavy carpeting of 
evergreens and flowers. The long lines of Guards presented arms. 
There was a moment of death-like silence — a most impressive 
pause — when the inclined plane was adjusted to the car. The 
Marines marched up into the car and carefully bore the casket 
down and directly into the vault. It was set geirtly on the bier. 
The Guards stood silent. A brief historical sketch of the dead 
President was read by the Rev. J. H. Jones, former chaphiin of 
the old Garfield regiment. The Vocal Society of Cleveland then 
chanted in beautiful measure the Twenty-second Ode of Horace. 
The friends and attendants were thanked for tiieir presence and 
sympathy, and the benediction was pronounced by President B. A. 
Hinsdale, of Hiram College. The door was closed. A ^^iiani was 
placed about the sepnlcher, and all tliat the earth couhl (laiin of 
James A. Garfield was left to sleep the sleep that knows no waking. 



672 LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

To moralize ou the Life and AVork of Garfield would be super- 
fluous. He lias furnished to the people of the United States one 
of the brightest and noblest examples of American citizenship. 
Both in public life and private life he has contributed to the 
annals of our times a record unsullied as the azure sky. His steps 
were the steps of a pure man climbing up to greatness. His am- 
bitions were chastened — his aspirations the aspirations of a patriot. 
Over his great talents was shed the luster of noble activities, and 
his path was illumined with something of the effulgence of genius. 
His integrity was spotless, his virtue white as the snow. Of all 
our public men of recent times, Garfield was in a certain sense the 
most American. He had suffered all the hardships of the common 
lot. He had known poverty and orphanage and toil. To himself 
he owed in a preeminent degree his victory over adversity and his 
rise to distinction. He carried into public life, even to the highest 
seat of honor, the plainness and simplicity of a man of the people. 
Ostentation was no part of his nature, and subtlety found no place 
in his practices. In an age of venality and corruption — the very 
draff and ebb of the Civil War — he stood unscathed. He went up 
to his high seat and down to the doorway of the grave without the 
scent of fire on his garments. His fame exhales a sweet perfume 
in all the land and throughout all lands, and is a priceless legacy 
which posterity will not willingly let die. 



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